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Tuesday
Oct272009
The Next Great Social Network? Your Address Book
Young Urban Professional
This morning I logged into YouTube and I noticed that it now helps me find me find videos and channels from friends who have linked their Google contact information to their social profiles. Meanwhile yesterday Google rolled out its social search program (which so far I like). And recently Google Reader too became a lot more social. So the Gmail address book/contact list is finally showing that it can be a powerful tool for connecting you to your social connections. This is something we saw coming.
Here's what I love about this...
First, because I have lived in Gmail the last five years, there's loads of data in there that can make social networking even more powerful. Google will do a lot to mine these connections. This is just the beginning. But third parties will assist too. I love what Remail is doing by helping me easily find emails from contacts on my iPhone - even when I am offline.
Second, its agnostic. Google doesn't care which social network you join. If a user links their profile to their social graph, Google will hep you harness it.
Finally, I like that you're in complete control. If you don't want people to be able to search your Flickr photos, make them private and do not connect them to your Google Profile.
However, here's the big question - will consumers set up their Google profiles? And, if they do, will they link them to their social networks? If they are tech adept, yes, they will. But what about the rest of us? I am not so sure. This has to get as easy and as elegant to use as Facebook.
Watch for Google, and perhaps Yahoo and AOL, to make a big push in this direction in the coming months. Google will start promoting Profiles heavily and on its spartan home page so that they can get smarter about social networks. And Facebook, meanwhile, will do the same by encouraging more sites to use Facebook Connect so that, over time, they can help you search the annotated web as filtered by your friends.
Reader Comments (17)
I'm torn on the Google profile. The idea of having something that I control show up in search results for my name is great, but it's yet another thing that I have to maintain.(And mine doesn't show up for me; it keeps telling me I have to add more information about myself.)None of my friends have Google profiles, and I'm not sure they'll bother when they already have Facebook and Twitter and LiveJournal.
Why cant google and facebook just come to some sort of accord and let me get it all in one place . . . ah dreaming. I think there is a valid point about users filling out their google profiles. I think people are at a point where they dont want to have 1 more site they have to keep up with. Especially for people who are not as tech inclined.
Google needs a 'Google Connect' tool to reach all its audience with no advanced skills.Something to have on Google search home page, collecting info from your email (trying to guess what Social Networks you are part of) and asking you to confirm (or not). Maybe.
Some blogs already preparing for next phase of search, social search, by adding Google Friend Connect http://bit.ly/48Z2PK
i don't like the collectivist mentality of google... and don't like how heavily they contribute to leftist candidates and organizations... Mario Losasso dreams of an all in one place... but that same place threatens you personally... when the wrong entity decides its time to find certain people... i've avoided google acounts like the plague... and will continue to do so...
I would like to see my Blogger profile be replaced by my Google profile. That one seems like it would be easy but I could be missing something.
Well sean, we simply dont agree. I dont have anything to hide. And its really easy to find info about anyone you want. I control what people see about me by putting it out there. I dont beleive in the hysterical big brother idea. Google wants to make money. Thats what they use their info for. And i have nothing to hide.
@Mario. One of the best comments I've ever heard on the topic of privacy when someone says they don't have anything to hide is: Is your life so boring there's nothing you want to keep private? Not that I'm agreeing with Sean entirely, but we should've learned from our mistakes. I'm Dutch and I know why so many Jews got deported in the Netherlands during WWII: The Dutch government did a very good job documenting who had what religion. All with the best intentions but it got abused by the next in charge: Nazi's.Ironically we are doing the documenting ourselves nowadays. On topic again. I've felt for a long time that Google is trying to build a explicit Social Network from implicit connections you've made. I'm curious as to what Google will do once the Twitter-stream flows into their servers, will they look followers etc.? When will they unveil the power of the contacts you saved in Gmail?
@melle I agree with most of what you said. I think i have a greater amount of privacy because i control the information that is public. If someone wants to know about me and they type in a google search they get my profiles on several networks. All containing information that I disperse. However if someone had to pay a private investegator to find me, i no longer control the information. I beleive by trying to stay out of the system, you actually make the problem worse. Its just like your credit report. The more involved you are, the easier it is to control. On point, i think that this is all going to come to a point as google implements wave. Rather than replicate an existing framework (facebook, myspace, etc) they are going to build the next level on their supposed next level platform. I dont have much insight into that seeing as how i am not one of the elite few who received a wave invite.
After a slow start I find more and more of my friends using their Google profiles. Like you I use Gmail as my online base camp and it is an obvious place to start to link up all those connections.
After a slow start I find more of my friends using Google profiles. Gmail seems a logical place to start looking for your social network when you use it a lot.
Have you checked out what bloopbleep.com is all about?
This is good news. Keeping track of contacts across social networks is one of the weakest links in the social media connectivity chain. Hopefully Google is able to pull off what Plaxo hasn't been able to do and what Facebook or Linkedin can't really do too well (being that they're more closed networks - ie. you won't have a business contact's latest info it they're not on Facebook).
Social 'AddressBook' for Android 2.0 http://bit.ly/Ibm9Z
i think that this is all going to come to a point as google implements wave. Rather than replicate an existing framework they are going to build the next level on their supposed next level platform.
Agreed...here's my rif on this... Relevance and Intelligence - http://bit.ly/9VHDJ8
mark smilie, i read your piece, but can't comment on your page... i still distrust and dislike google... i don't want my social networks experience turned inside out... i have absolutely no interest in being found by people with whom i have no personal relationship... google's complete lack of disregard for privacy could not be better expressed by the way they rolled out Buzz... their ineptitude could not be further highlighted given how they rolled out Wave... i will not be part of a "real people" internet experience... i like that people canNOT google my name or e'mail address and find the real me... i have guarded that privacy since first going online in 1992 and will keep it that way... no i am not that sean bean ... when the IRS or DHS decides to come after the real me... because i refuse to buy their mandated health insurance...they won't find me... easily... i have nothing to hide, as Mario Losasso said... but neither do i have any interest in providing an easy path to my front door...