Social Networking: The New Frontier

Recently, Google has announced details regarding its social networking project Open Social. History has shown thus far, that all of Google's innovations and applications have been successful. Shortly after emerging on the scene, Google quickly became the most popular search engine. But they didn't stop there. Google didn't just want Yahoo!'s place on the internet, it wanted Mapquest's, Hotmail's, Drudgereport's, and now Facebook's as well. It seems like Google has aspirations of making all other sites obsolete. It's ambition to make it's site a one stop shop for all internet activity has now led the company to try its hand on the social networking scene.

I personally use Google on a daily basis. I started using Google as a search engine, and as they added new features, slowly I started going to the site to check my mail, read the news, get directions, etc. People have encouraged Google's growth by using new it's new features and applications. Whether they will do the same with Open Social, we'll have to wait and see.

I think with everything Google has set its sights on doing, every feature they've introduced, they had to make improvements to already existing applications to compete with an already existent provider. It had to give Gmail accounts more space then Hotmail, otherwise why switch? So if Google thinks it can make improvements to or expand upon the social networking scene, by all means go ahead. If its better, innovative, more convenient, people will use it. If it's not, they won't, and they'll stick to what they know.

Google has aligned Myspace, Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle to participate on Open Social. All the big players, except Facebook. I think it will be interesting to see if people will embrace Open Social. I personally am content keeping my internet activity separate from my Social Networking. I don't mind visiting multiple sites for different things. I don't need to get my text books from a friend of a friend of a friend on a social network. I can go to Amazon. Google might be getting to ambitious in its endeavors. They can't be the entire internet. I mean, thats why they created windows with multiple tabs.