Just when people had started calling Facebook and Google the two giants of the Internet, there’s news that Google will attempt to pull the ground from under Facebook’s feet, by launching a new social networking service of its own. This tasty titbit was tweet-dropped by Digg founder, Kevin Rose, who who’d heard the name of the upcoming “Facebook-killer” would be “Google Me”.
Speculation has it that the new service will be an enhanced, and more integrated version of the current Google Profiles. To support this, there’s also news that Google Buzz’s lead developer, Rick Klau, is now working on Google Profiles.
A move like this, especially after the unsuccessful launch of Buzz, really shows just how much Google wants to get into the social networking space, and they certainly do have potential, if Gmail, Docs, Maps, Calendar, Orkut, and even Search are properly integrated.
But while Google Me may be a new and improved Google Buzz that reaches across Google’s many online spheres, or even a standalone like Facebook, it will have a seriously hard time trying to pull customers away from Facebook. Opting in for Google Me will probably not be a choice that customers will like to make, having just been placated by Facebook’s new privacy settings, apart from still being apprehensive about Google’s treatment of privacy after Buzz’s bungled launch and the WiFi snooping Street View Car.