Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google News Launches Facebook Application

Posted by Zonk on from the so-...-goobook-huh dept.

NewsCloud writes "Eight days after Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Zeitgeist conference attendees that social networks account for an 'enormous proportion [of Internet usage]...it's a very real phenomenon,' Google News has launched its own Facebook application. Says Google News: 'This experimental application enables users to create custom sections or select from a set of pre-defined topics, then browse and share stories with their friends on Facebook. We are trying a couple things differently with this application, and it is still in beta, but we think that it adds value to the Facebook experience and to users' overall news experience.' Check out Google News on Facebook (requires registration) — or view screenshots."

2 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Still in beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Google Talk
    Its use is high where people are not stuck with MSN (which means most of the developing countries, except South America where every one uses MSN). As more people start using Google Mail, Google Talk will become more usable.
    Google Pack
    Why they created this is beyond my understanding.
    Orkut
    Welcome to Brazil, India, Pakistan... everyone is on Orkut-ing. Orkut is still being developed (and gathers a lot of down-times with a very stupid temporary page which has no information about how long it will take them to fix it).
    Blogger
    Blogger is still developed. Last time I used it, it had a wonderful English-to-Devanagari facility (basically, if you type Hindi, it converts Latin script to Devanagari)

    These were just the ones I have used, and to me it seems that at least for above mentioned services, they are targetting new audience, and that is why they don't have big following yet. It is quite understandable, because except GMail, none of their services are offering anything innovative, so people are not changing over any time soon. But rest assured, they are still working on them :)

  2. Re:Still in beta by MrNonchalant · · Score: 2, Informative

    Google Gears - Relatively recent release, definitely key to bridging online/offline divide.
    Google Video - Probably gets killed off or refocused at some point, YouTube is their main entry in that space now.
    Google Talk - Big shift away from the downloadable client toward web-based versions, which seem to attract more market share.
    Google Pack - Don't really need to do anything with this, except new versions of apps when they update.
    Google Accelerator - This I'm pretty sure they've orphaned, for the reasons you state.
    Google Product Search - Didn't take off like they thought, will continue to exist and get some improvements.
    Orkut - Big in Brazil, probably will get eclipsed by a serious entry/acquisition into social networks at some point.
    Picasa - Still around, still gets regular updates.
    Blogger - Ditto. Just got a big upgrade.
    SketchUp - Relatively recent acquisition, probably will be like Picasa or Earth. There, but not part of the central strategy.