The fact that Google is going out of their way to pour water on this is kind of interesting in itself. It almost suggests that they have some kind of under-the-covers agreement (I guess it can't be Facebook, but maybe Twitter?) that they're trying hard not to step on?
From what I've observed they seem to have firmly adopted a different strategy for social which involves organically growing their existing products with social features rather than trying a high profile (and high risk) product launch. To me this demonstrated some much needed corporate self-awareness (there are some things Google just isn't good at) and so I was pretty surprised to see that they would have reversed that and gone for a big splash.
I honestly think Google has all the seeds to make a competitive social offering but they need to play their cards very carefully and tie things together in the right way. If they can weave Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube and Picasa together then they basically have Facebook's feature set. All of these products are best of class and loved individually by their users. Add Android into the mix and Google even has a trump card they can play. The question is how Google can gently usher all those users / technologies into one cohesive social offering without harming the individual products, alarming people about privacy or any other negative consequences. It has to be done carefully and gradually and with sensitivity. I think this is exactly what they've been doing and is the smart strategy.
> ...rather than trying a high profile (and high risk) product launch. To me this demonstrated some much needed corporate self-awareness (there are some things Google just isn't good at)
Well said. Wave was far from great — mostly because it was hyped as an email replacement, rather than real-time collaboration.
Further, UI hasn't been Google's strong suit (this is slowly changing for the better, however), and for a social network to steal people from Facebook, it needs to have a great (not just good) design. Facebook started that way (especially compared to MySpace), but has fallen a little by the wayside over the last couple of years.
From what I've observed they seem to have firmly adopted a different strategy for social which involves organically growing their existing products with social features rather than trying a high profile (and high risk) product launch. To me this demonstrated some much needed corporate self-awareness (there are some things Google just isn't good at) and so I was pretty surprised to see that they would have reversed that and gone for a big splash.
I honestly think Google has all the seeds to make a competitive social offering but they need to play their cards very carefully and tie things together in the right way. If they can weave Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube and Picasa together then they basically have Facebook's feature set. All of these products are best of class and loved individually by their users. Add Android into the mix and Google even has a trump card they can play. The question is how Google can gently usher all those users / technologies into one cohesive social offering without harming the individual products, alarming people about privacy or any other negative consequences. It has to be done carefully and gradually and with sensitivity. I think this is exactly what they've been doing and is the smart strategy.