Facebook Trembles As Google Prepares A “Killer” Social Network

Over the past few days the rumor mills have been buzzing as news emerged that Google is working on a potential “Facebook killer”. This comes only days after we published about Facebook’s search strategy which could eventually become a direct competitor to Google. One thing is increasingly clear: this year could soon shape up to be more about Facebook versus Google in contrast to last year’s “Facebook versus Twitter” theme.

To say that Facebook isn’t concerned about Google planning an attack against them would most likely be inaccurate as Mark Zuckerberg has always been paranoid about potential competitors. However all recent attempts to squash Facebook have been completely ineffective. It would be difficult for Facebook to plan any form of defense given that they don’t know what Google is working on, but I’m sure they’ve strategized about all weaknesses in their existing system.

So what are the details about the new “Facebook Killer”. Aside from a tweet that was posted by Kevin Rose, which was later removed yet alluded to the issue, Adam D’Angelo, the former Facebook CTO, and Co-Founder of Quora, posted his own statement on the Q&A site yesterday:

Here is what I’ve pieced together from some reliable sources:

This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.

They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.

Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.
They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.

So is Facebook scared of the new “Google Me” service that is rumored to be launching around October? Probably not. The title was more tongue and cheek than anything else. Facebook is about to surpass 500 million users and for Google to try and “kill” Facebook would be pretty difficult. The company has ramped up on their internal social team however and it’s not unlikely that a more comprehensive competitor to Facebook will be built, something which Google Buzz didn’t succeed at.

Yet given Facebook’s strong position, it’s pretty unlikely that the company will be significantly affected by a Google competitor at any point in the immediate future. No matter what, it will be interesting to see how the new Google-Facebook battle evolves over the coming months. It’s pretty clear things are heating up between the two companies.

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1530828 Comments2010-06-30+14%3A16%3A55Nick+O%27Neill »

Four words – Google Wave, Google Buzz. Both flops, both considered to be "killers". Google is great at search and making money off of ads. Anytime they have attempted to do social they have failed, so I doubt that Facebook is trembling at all.

Comment by Cody Merritt — June 30, 2010 @ 6:23 am
I can see how it could play out. With Gmail Google is already part of many people's default social network. What they've been bad at is putting the pieces together. Buzz, Mail, Wave. One day. Perhaps.

Comment by Peter Fletcher — June 30, 2010 @ 6:37 am
While Facebook ought to prepare for new initiatives being developed by competitors, the notion — even one that's tongue-in-cheek — that a social app that's being developed by Google would have them quaking in their boots is a little silly.

Say what you want about their privacy issues, but Facebook's innovations and ease of use for the general populace are the things that make them so sticky. They're what keep people there.

Google, while a powerful force in the online world, has yet to demonstrate any proficiency in developing or promoting a social application. Wave had potential, but its learning curve is steep and, frankly, it's no fun (not that this was supposed to be a replacement for Facebook). Buzz was flat-out annoying. I don't know a single person who actually uses it.

Lots of people are displeased with Facebook, for one reason or another, but the fact is that it's the thing that people use. Most people DON'T use Twitter. They DON'T use Google Buzz. They use Facebook. Period.

Facebook should keep its eyes and ears open at all times, because lots of companies are gunning for them, but they'll have to screw the pooch pretty significantly for 500 million people to abandon ship in favor of something else.

Comment by Melissa Case DelGaud — June 30, 2010 @ 6:39 am
Google hasn't exactly lit the social world on fire with Orkut, Wave or Buzz so I don't think Facebook needs to be worried about anything just yet. It will be interesting to see if a social product if any materializes out of Google and what exactly that product will offer to consumers. If Google does nothing but copy Facebook and fails to innovate and enhance what Facebook has already established than Google Me will most likely be another social failure for Google.

Comment by Chad Egeland — June 30, 2010 @ 6:41 am
don´t see either, why people should join and switch to another network, while it took them years to build their network on facebook. Guess it is pretty naive to believe one could compete with Facebook on a large scale (in niches yes), since as the leader facebook, it is easy for facebook just to copy any new successful feature at other networks and gone is any reason to switch.

Cheers

Joern
http://www.strongquickly.com

Comment by Jörn Steinz — June 30, 2010 @ 6:45 am
500 mln user base? So what? Most of end-user utilize FB features like a toy, instead of Google (mean Gmail) users – like a tool. Very good tool.

Comment by Andrey Stefanenko — June 30, 2010 @ 7:31 am
Nobody expected Android to be the iphone killer either, but android is up to 20% of the market share while the iphone has dropped that same 20% in the last year. I don't think Google Me would kill facebook quickly, but could they win in a race..? I think it's possible.

I for one as a developer would love a company like Google to be the lead in Social, since their code and API's are easily accessible and Google follows better development standards than Facebook.

Comment by Clay McIlrath — June 30, 2010 @ 7:36 am
It's not true that Facebook has 500mln users. Many people have multiple accounts and there is lots of fake accounts set up and run by PR folks who get paid for bringing fans to their clients. 500mln *accounts* maybe, but definitely not users. I wouldn't be surprised if the real number was close to 300mln.

Comment by Pawe? Krakowiak — June 30, 2010 @ 7:53 am
It's just very difficult to imagine how this would happen. As a facebook user, try to think of features that would make you and all of your friends pack up and head somewhere else. Facebook is doing a pretty good job at utilizing current technologies to connect people in real time. What else is there? I mean, I'm sure it's there, I just can't think of it. If Google's social network had a "drive" mode where it read updates to me and could translate my speech to text, thus allowing "hands-free texting" I might be interested in that. Just brainstorming here. What would you like to do with your social network that you can't currently do?

Comment by Clint Carlson — June 30, 2010 @ 7:59 am
Save to assume Facebook Connect will be blocked from this service. Just ask twitter….

Facebook has 500M users and…

1> pissed users over privacy

2> pissed developers over getting screwed continually

3> pissed community – cause they don't play partner nicely

1+2+3 = loose brick

Go Google! Competition is good for everyone.

Comment by David Henderson — June 30, 2010 @ 8:19 am
The only country Google will beat FB is in Brasil. Just because brazilian people (and maybe India) prefer Orkut than FB yet. Don't ask me why.

Comment by Paulo de Loyola — June 30, 2010 @ 10:45 am
Google's interfaces are very boring, and not interesting to the non-geek. I don't think it will go very far. Also, Facebook's patent on the wall that is tuned to show posts interesting to you may be an issue. Sure Google may be able to do it technically better, but patents hmm mmm

Comment by Linto — June 30, 2010 @ 11:20 am
Am I the one one who has never cared for Google's Search Engine or Gmail? Nothing that Google has done has attracted my attention yet…and most likely, never will.

Comment by Kevin Kumpf — June 30, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
Facebook will be like the Chinese and copy success? HAH. The one thing they can't copy is reverting back to being COLLEGE ONLY, which is what made it in the first damn place. I have since gone to other college only sites. Fed up with the spam from fake accounts and stupid children and adults who shouldn't even be on the internet.

-

I prefer sites that require authentication, which is what a .edu email only site can do. Besides, google is the same for crap privacy just like FB.

Comment by guest — June 30, 2010 @ 2:38 pm
I really want google to check fb. My humble recommendations on how to get there.

Aggressive tactics:

Cut off the contact importing by facebook, prioritize google searches for people to googleme profiles, and make contact importing seemless with the gmail email graph, and it could do some serious damage.

Super aggressive tactics:

Strike a deal with microsoft and yahoo to cut off fb's contact importation and deprioritize fb's email deliverability unless fb allows full export of user's friends' emails. This is only way to truly create a portable social graph. The goal should be to force fb to make their graph portable.

Comment by Fb_dev — June 30, 2010 @ 4:54 pm
The sharing of content through Facebook is only getting bigger & bigger each day, trying to knock off Facebook is going to be Google's toughest undertaking ever…

It will be great to see these 2 go head to head. It should lead to some very cool innovations. Bring it on.

Comment by Greg Vincent — June 30, 2010 @ 6:54 pm
@ Melissa

Facebook's innovations?

People DON'T user Twitter??

What planet do you live in?

Google doesn't have to kill Facebook, someone kids in a garage will.

Comment by Mel — June 30, 2010 @ 10:48 pm
lol

which silicone valley company to rulz them allz it is not like FB is staffed with Googlers. all these services are converging post on FB to twitter to linked in to buzz to friendfeed bounce off ping. the killer new app would just filter out the reverberations so people would only have to read one status update ever.

Comment by robert — June 30, 2010 @ 11:36 pm
For numerous reasons, I think Facebook might be given a hiccup by Google. But given how miserably Google has failed over time with its 'social' attempts it just appears improbable.

here's my take on this – http://startupmeme.com/google-desperate-to-rock-t...

Comment by Sardar Mohkim Khan — July 1, 2010 @ 1:07 am
Seems a lot of you forgot Google already tried a social networking site with Orkut, that failed, so then they tried Wave and then Buzz; and here they go again.

Comment by Michael Lauzon — July 1, 2010 @ 4:14 am
Whatever. Is this social crap going to improve on what Google already offers? I think not. Let Facebook do their thing.

Don't focus on crap for the sake of focusing on crap.

Comment by Sean — July 1, 2010 @ 9:09 am
Yahoo also tried it, and failed. And like I said, I prefer a college only site where spam is non existent or reduced, and everyone can be verified. No more bot accounts asking to be your friend so it can steal your email and pictures. Plus you have people with brains enough or willing enough to get/pay for their alumni .edu email and join.

Comment by guest — July 1, 2010 @ 3:09 pm
Maybe "Google Me" doesn't have a back button problem like facebook does. Everybody I know wishes facebook would fix that problem.

Comment by Lori — July 1, 2010 @ 6:55 pm
With a half BILLION users on Facebook, Google would have to create an app that allows me to walk through walls and fly like a bird to get me to start building a social network all over again. With all its annoying little usability issues, Facebook works just fine.

But in a way I hope I'm wrong. If Google has got something brilliant up their sleeve, all the good for us…

Comment by Daniel Pendick — July 2, 2010 @ 11:14 am
Friendster…MySpace…Facebook… Why *wouldn't* another site be able to grab the keyboards away from the current "leading" social network? (Plus the sites can share members. People often subscribe to more than one social networking site).

Now whether or not it will be Google is the question.

Facebook has pissed off millions of users over privacy issues (and other issues), and more and more users will tire of the excessive phony accounts, plus the constantly-changing privacy policies. They just removed another privacy block, and now every time you add a new friend, the news that you "added a new friend" is streamed to the wall of ALL of your friends. There is no way to stop these broadcasts, short of turning off your wall completely.

Comment by Jaia — July 7, 2010 @ 8:48 pm
A lot of silliness in the replies, and a lot of silliness in the concept.

There's only 3 meaningful things anyone has said in this discourse:

1: Google sucks at the social game, so this is a joke.

2: Facebook has a solid deathgrip because of it's size, reach, and persistence.

3: If anyone's going to kill facebook, it's going to be some kids in a garage that are already so far outside the box they couldn't try to think in it if they wanted to.

Also, here's a shout-out to the guy that suggested all the other major online companies should self-destruct by breaking every anti-trust law imaginable. I'm not sure how or why the deaths of their competitors would bring down facebook, but it would make the world a much more interesting place.

Comment by mmm — July 8, 2010 @ 1:49 am
A new and great social networking site is Lingolounge.com it is awesome and so much better than Facebook! I stopped using facebook because I was tired of my personal information being sold and sick and tired of all the games. I don't care if people want to save their animals on Farmville and I don't care if they killed people on Mafia Wars!!!!! Go to Lingolounge.com and jump in and be a part of it!!! Will pass Facebook in the long-run!!!

Comment by Kimberlee — July 17, 2010 @ 4:26 pm
Facebook is so annoying, dishonest, and scary. Hope Google weakens them so that a newcomer can innovate something more open and secure.

Comment by Mic — February 1, 2011 @ 12:35 am

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Four words – Google Wave, Google Buzz. Both flops, both considered to be "killers". Google is great at search and making money off of ads. Anytime they have attempted to do social they have failed, so I doubt that Facebook is trembling at all.

Comment by Cody Merritt — June 30, 2010 @ 6:23 am

I can see how it could play out. With Gmail Google is already part of many people's default social network. What they've been bad at is putting the pieces together. Buzz, Mail, Wave. One day. Perhaps.

Comment by Peter Fletcher — June 30, 2010 @ 6:37 am

While Facebook ought to prepare for new initiatives being developed by competitors, the notion — even one that's tongue-in-cheek — that a social app that's being developed by Google would have them quaking in their boots is a little silly.

Say what you want about their privacy issues, but Facebook's innovations and ease of use for the general populace are the things that make them so sticky. They're what keep people there.

Google, while a powerful force in the online world, has yet to demonstrate any proficiency in developing or promoting a social application. Wave had potential, but its learning curve is steep and, frankly, it's no fun (not that this was supposed to be a replacement for Facebook). Buzz was flat-out annoying. I don't know a single person who actually uses it.

Lots of people are displeased with Facebook, for one reason or another, but the fact is that it's the thing that people use. Most people DON'T use Twitter. They DON'T use Google Buzz. They use Facebook. Period.

Facebook should keep its eyes and ears open at all times, because lots of companies are gunning for them, but they'll have to screw the pooch pretty significantly for 500 million people to abandon ship in favor of something else.

Comment by Melissa Case DelGaud — June 30, 2010 @ 6:39 am

Google hasn't exactly lit the social world on fire with Orkut, Wave or Buzz so I don't think Facebook needs to be worried about anything just yet. It will be interesting to see if a social product if any materializes out of Google and what exactly that product will offer to consumers. If Google does nothing but copy Facebook and fails to innovate and enhance what Facebook has already established than Google Me will most likely be another social failure for Google.

Comment by Chad Egeland — June 30, 2010 @ 6:41 am

don´t see either, why people should join and switch to another network, while it took them years to build their network on facebook. Guess it is pretty naive to believe one could compete with Facebook on a large scale (in niches yes), since as the leader facebook, it is easy for facebook just to copy any new successful feature at other networks and gone is any reason to switch.

Cheers

Joern
http://www.strongquickly.com

Comment by Jörn Steinz — June 30, 2010 @ 6:45 am

500 mln user base? So what? Most of end-user utilize FB features like a toy, instead of Google (mean Gmail) users – like a tool. Very good tool.

Comment by Andrey Stefanenko — June 30, 2010 @ 7:31 am

Nobody expected Android to be the iphone killer either, but android is up to 20% of the market share while the iphone has dropped that same 20% in the last year. I don't think Google Me would kill facebook quickly, but could they win in a race..? I think it's possible.

I for one as a developer would love a company like Google to be the lead in Social, since their code and API's are easily accessible and Google follows better development standards than Facebook.

Comment by Clay McIlrath — June 30, 2010 @ 7:36 am

It's not true that Facebook has 500mln users. Many people have multiple accounts and there is lots of fake accounts set up and run by PR folks who get paid for bringing fans to their clients. 500mln *accounts* maybe, but definitely not users. I wouldn't be surprised if the real number was close to 300mln.

Comment by Pawe? Krakowiak — June 30, 2010 @ 7:53 am

It's just very difficult to imagine how this would happen. As a facebook user, try to think of features that would make you and all of your friends pack up and head somewhere else. Facebook is doing a pretty good job at utilizing current technologies to connect people in real time. What else is there? I mean, I'm sure it's there, I just can't think of it. If Google's social network had a "drive" mode where it read updates to me and could translate my speech to text, thus allowing "hands-free texting" I might be interested in that. Just brainstorming here. What would you like to do with your social network that you can't currently do?

Comment by Clint Carlson — June 30, 2010 @ 7:59 am

Save to assume Facebook Connect will be blocked from this service. Just ask twitter….

Facebook has 500M users and…

1> pissed users over privacy

2> pissed developers over getting screwed continually

3> pissed community – cause they don't play partner nicely

1+2+3 = loose brick

Go Google! Competition is good for everyone.

Comment by David Henderson — June 30, 2010 @ 8:19 am

The only country Google will beat FB is in Brasil. Just because brazilian people (and maybe India) prefer Orkut than FB yet. Don't ask me why.

Comment by Paulo de Loyola — June 30, 2010 @ 10:45 am

Google's interfaces are very boring, and not interesting to the non-geek. I don't think it will go very far. Also, Facebook's patent on the wall that is tuned to show posts interesting to you may be an issue. Sure Google may be able to do it technically better, but patents hmm mmm

Comment by Linto — June 30, 2010 @ 11:20 am

Am I the one one who has never cared for Google's Search Engine or Gmail? Nothing that Google has done has attracted my attention yet…and most likely, never will.

Comment by Kevin Kumpf — June 30, 2010 @ 1:41 pm

Facebook will be like the Chinese and copy success? HAH. The one thing they can't copy is reverting back to being COLLEGE ONLY, which is what made it in the first damn place. I have since gone to other college only sites. Fed up with the spam from fake accounts and stupid children and adults who shouldn't even be on the internet.

I prefer sites that require authentication, which is what a .edu email only site can do. Besides, google is the same for crap privacy just like FB.

Comment by guest — June 30, 2010 @ 2:38 pm

I really want google to check fb. My humble recommendations on how to get there.

Aggressive tactics:

Cut off the contact importing by facebook, prioritize google searches for people to googleme profiles, and make contact importing seemless with the gmail email graph, and it could do some serious damage.

Super aggressive tactics:

Strike a deal with microsoft and yahoo to cut off fb's contact importation and deprioritize fb's email deliverability unless fb allows full export of user's friends' emails. This is only way to truly create a portable social graph. The goal should be to force fb to make their graph portable.

Comment by Fb_dev — June 30, 2010 @ 4:54 pm

The sharing of content through Facebook is only getting bigger & bigger each day, trying to knock off Facebook is going to be Google's toughest undertaking ever…

It will be great to see these 2 go head to head. It should lead to some very cool innovations. Bring it on.

Comment by Greg Vincent — June 30, 2010 @ 6:54 pm

@ Melissa

Facebook's innovations?

People DON'T user Twitter??

What planet do you live in?

Google doesn't have to kill Facebook, someone kids in a garage will.

Comment by Mel — June 30, 2010 @ 10:48 pm

lol

which silicone valley company to rulz them allz it is not like FB is staffed with Googlers. all these services are converging post on FB to twitter to linked in to buzz to friendfeed bounce off ping. the killer new app would just filter out the reverberations so people would only have to read one status update ever.

Comment by robert — June 30, 2010 @ 11:36 pm

For numerous reasons, I think Facebook might be given a hiccup by Google. But given how miserably Google has failed over time with its 'social' attempts it just appears improbable.

here's my take on this – http://startupmeme.com/google-desperate-to-rock-t...

Comment by Sardar Mohkim Khan — July 1, 2010 @ 1:07 am

Seems a lot of you forgot Google already tried a social networking site with Orkut, that failed, so then they tried Wave and then Buzz; and here they go again.

Comment by Michael Lauzon — July 1, 2010 @ 4:14 am

Whatever. Is this social crap going to improve on what Google already offers? I think not. Let Facebook do their thing.

Don't focus on crap for the sake of focusing on crap.

Comment by Sean — July 1, 2010 @ 9:09 am

Yahoo also tried it, and failed. And like I said, I prefer a college only site where spam is non existent or reduced, and everyone can be verified. No more bot accounts asking to be your friend so it can steal your email and pictures. Plus you have people with brains enough or willing enough to get/pay for their alumni .edu email and join.

Comment by guest — July 1, 2010 @ 3:09 pm

Maybe "Google Me" doesn't have a back button problem like facebook does. Everybody I know wishes facebook would fix that problem.

Comment by Lori — July 1, 2010 @ 6:55 pm

With a half BILLION users on Facebook, Google would have to create an app that allows me to walk through walls and fly like a bird to get me to start building a social network all over again. With all its annoying little usability issues, Facebook works just fine.

But in a way I hope I'm wrong. If Google has got something brilliant up their sleeve, all the good for us…

Comment by Daniel Pendick — July 2, 2010 @ 11:14 am

Friendster…MySpace…Facebook… Why *wouldn't* another site be able to grab the keyboards away from the current "leading" social network? (Plus the sites can share members. People often subscribe to more than one social networking site).

Now whether or not it will be Google is the question.

Facebook has pissed off millions of users over privacy issues (and other issues), and more and more users will tire of the excessive phony accounts, plus the constantly-changing privacy policies. They just removed another privacy block, and now every time you add a new friend, the news that you "added a new friend" is streamed to the wall of ALL of your friends. There is no way to stop these broadcasts, short of turning off your wall completely.

Comment by Jaia — July 7, 2010 @ 8:48 pm

A lot of silliness in the replies, and a lot of silliness in the concept.

There's only 3 meaningful things anyone has said in this discourse:

1: Google sucks at the social game, so this is a joke.

2: Facebook has a solid deathgrip because of it's size, reach, and persistence.

3: If anyone's going to kill facebook, it's going to be some kids in a garage that are already so far outside the box they couldn't try to think in it if they wanted to.

Also, here's a shout-out to the guy that suggested all the other major online companies should self-destruct by breaking every anti-trust law imaginable. I'm not sure how or why the deaths of their competitors would bring down facebook, but it would make the world a much more interesting place.

Comment by mmm — July 8, 2010 @ 1:49 am

A new and great social networking site is Lingolounge.com it is awesome and so much better than Facebook! I stopped using facebook because I was tired of my personal information being sold and sick and tired of all the games. I don't care if people want to save their animals on Farmville and I don't care if they killed people on Mafia Wars!!!!! Go to Lingolounge.com and jump in and be a part of it!!! Will pass Facebook in the long-run!!!

Comment by Kimberlee — July 17, 2010 @ 4:26 pm

Facebook is so annoying, dishonest, and scary. Hope Google weakens them so that a newcomer can innovate something more open and secure.

Comment by Mic — February 1, 2011 @ 12:35 am

Facebook Trembles As Google Prepares A “Killer” Social Network

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