Google CEO Confirms Social Integration

siliconbits writes "As we get closer to — and hear more about — the launch of Google's upcoming social product, Google Me, the less and less it seems like a stand-alone social network and more like an interweaving of social connections into its existing offerings. It sounds eerily similar to those 'social' search results that have lingered at the bottom of the results page and third-party extras like Rapportive, the Gmail add-on that gives you the social networking lowdown on your email contacts."

Comments

Re:Uh, no thanks.

[cybrthng]

Maybe the Internet was social to begin with?

I don't like the way its being dominated by single entities acting as marketing companies, but i'm not naive enough to think it isn't a fundamental aspect of the very existence of the Internet :)

Best two google stories

[rotide]

Best two Google stories, back to back. Spying on kids by Google employee(s) and Social Integration announcements. What could possibly go wrong? Just kind of funny.

Re:Uh, no thanks.

[bsDaemon]

It's a fundamental aspect of human culture and psychology... for normal people, at least. Its just there used to be places you could go that everyone in the world couldn't follow you and find out everything you were doing.

Re:Uh, no thanks.

[AnonymousClown]

No. The internet was designed to keep computers connected during a nuclear war. Everything else was added on later. The web was really for publishing documents and accessing scientific information - it wasn't meant to let everyone know that you're a Justin Bieber fan.

But hey, everything morphs and now the scientists can look at porn while surfing for the latest on particle physics.

Why do they term beta programs "Product Launch"?

[Assmasher]

Fully expect this to be in beta for 2 years and then canceled, a la Wave, for some other 'uber' replacement 'product.' Seriously, with so many talented people, Google actually produces relatively very little.

But the real question

[sfraggle]

The question everyone is asking: Will Google Me be as successful as Windows Me?

Re:Uh, no thanks.

[bsDaemon]

Maybe they're just trying to find out what happens when two bodies with strong attractive properties collide with each other?

Re:Uh, no thanks.

[daedae]

Its just there used to be places you could go that everyone in the world couldn't follow you and find out everything you were doing.

The Internet is not and was not necessarily that place ("On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog" notwithstanding). The reason everybody can follow you and find out everything you're doing everywhere else in the world is because you announced to everybody where you were going and what you were doing anyway.

Mixed Feelings

[whisper_jeff]

As much as I want a Facebook killer to come along (and I really, really, really want Facebook to be killed...), I'm not sure I want it to be Google. My big beef with Facebook is I absolutely do not trust them. They've proven to have no respect for my personal information and thus I've pared my profile down to just the bare minimum information and I use the site to stay in touch with friends and family now. I'm not really using the site to keep my friends and family updated on my going-ons, however, because I don't trust Facebook with that information any more. Google, a company which is built on making money from the activities of web browsers, I trust only a bit more. Google, I know, will try to turn a profit from my information but I at least trust Google to make a serious attempt to respect my privacy while they try to monetize my information.

I really want Facebook erased from the digital landscape but I'm not sure if I want Google to be the vanquisher...

There still are

[SmallFurryCreature]

I can't follow you outside slashdot unless YOU make that possible. I don't know who you are. I can search your posts by your username because YOU choose to create an account and post under that account. I can't see what posts you made as an AC. Or what moderations you have done.

All your actions outside posts made under your account are unknown to me, unless YOU somehow share them AND link them to this account. You could be Obama for all I know, or be Lady Gaga. Now, I could google your nickname, but that only works if you used the same nick somewhere else.

It is possible to analyse all your posts and from them deduce a profile based on your style of writing. To be fair for the average slashdot poster that would put their location as "nearest kindergarden" but it might be possible to trace you to a specific location.

BUT that is because YOU choose to link all your posts together.

On the other hand, in the real world, I can't go invisible when I leave my house. So my neighbours know when I come and when I go. The supermarket can tell what I am doing by what I am buying. The bookshop knows my reading habbits (you sicko, is their personalized greeting) etc etc.

So, why do people worry about their online visibitlity where you can be a million different people, when everyone and their dog knows your offline person and what it is doing?

If you ever lived in a small community, you are used to it and you know, if the community is good, then it is a benefit. Neighbours actually stopped an attempted burglary because they knew I was away and saw movement so knew it couldn't be okay when I was younger and lived in a "village" that was about a dozen houses. In Amsterdam I had a neighbour discovered after the smell from the rotting corpse finally drifted into the hallway. All I knew was that the previous resident had moved and nobody ever noticed the new person moving in.

Don't complain about invasion of privacy is you broadcast every fart you make to the entire world. It is like saying "how dare people look at me when I streak down the high street".