Normally we don’t cover breaking news on Tux Geek, but today, just as I was changing my Google Account password, I noticed a link called “Edit Profile”. Startled, I decided to click through and find out if Google launched ‘GoogleIn’ overnight.
Google already has a social network, called Orkut, since October 2006, which is pretty big in Brazil but not so much elsewhere. This article is about Google Profiles, an entirely different service, that duplicates some of the functionality of Orkut.
Turns out, that it’s indeed similar to LinkedIn. It allows you to add current and past work positions, skills, a short introduction, education information, links to your other profiles, as well as photos from Google Picasa or Flickr.
It also allows you to add detailed contact information and control privacy settings.
Its too early too tell at the moment, but if Google decides to go forward with creating a social network, it’s going to be huge.
Google is the start page for the whole world at the moment, and they have millions of registered users – not to mention the people they could bring in through a campaign on the Google.com .
Google is also known to create extremely simple, easy to use interfaces; this could allow more mainstream users to sign up for social networking which could mean that this service could gain the largest user base – effectively becoming the phone book of the world.
The introduction on Google Profiles says:
The more information you provide, the easier it will be for friends to find you.
While the help web page omits such references:
A Google profile is simply how you present yourself on Google products to other Google users. It allows you to control how you appear on Google and tell others a bit more about who you are. With a Google profile, you can easily share your web content on one central location. You can include, for example, links to your blog, online photos, and other profiles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. You have control over what others see. Your profile won’t display any private information unless you’ve explicitly added it. –Google Help
If you think about it, Google Profiles is the obvious development, as it would integrate with other Google services like Chat, Reader, Gmail, Sites, etc. to provide a common base.
Although there’s no beta logo, Google Profiles is far from complete if it wants to compete with the likes of Facebook or LinkedIn. At the moment, it doesn’t have a way of adding friends. This can’t be very hard to add since this functionality already exists in Google Reader.
This is a consistent upgrade to the previous version of Google Profiles that was very limited and was covered by Google Operating System. This was also observed by Labnol, but without any implications toward social networking. Techcrunch said:
Google looks to be essentially creating a de-facto social network profile page, without having an actual social network around it. Apparently, Google, and all its services, are the social network.
Do you think Google will finish Google Profiles and create a full-fledged social network? What do you think are the implications of this happening?
