6 ms·

Is Google About to Launch a Facebook Killer?

17 points by bwaldorf 16y ago

bmalicoat 16y ago
Didn't they launch it before Facebook and haven't they since all but abandoned it? www.orkut.com Also, it didn't start out as a Brazilian social network, not sure where the article got that.
- code_duck 16y ago
  I assume they are calling it a Brazilian social network because Orkut has done particularly well in Brazil. 50% of the site's visits come from Brazil, with the remainder mostly split between the US and India. Orkut is administrated by Google Brazil since mid-2008.
  - blasdel 16y ago
    Before that there was a Brazilian invasion of Fotolog. Livejournal had a Russian invasion, Flickr had an early invasion of kids from the U.A.E. and was blocked there for a while, Xanga went asian, Bebo went British. You can't really predict how localized network effects will transform a globally-accessible online community.
    - kingsley_20 16y ago
      I have a hard-to-test-theory involving the nodes with high betweenness-centrality that may explain regional popularity. The "most-connected" (eigenvector or page-rank) nodes may be much less valuable than the "more-diversely-connected" nodes (betweenness centrality being a good measure of this)) in their ability to persuade conversion.
- justinph 16y ago
  It's going to be called buzzkut, and only for the armed forces.
TomOfTTB 16y ago
At this point I think we can safely say Google is in a perpetual state of "about to launch a Facebook killer" and will continue to be so until they actually manage to kill Facebook. So without any details to back it up Kevin Rose's source is just stating the obvious as far as I'm concerned.
- whughes 16y ago
  I feel like Google is constantly launching Facebook killers and waiting to see what will stick. They have so many different social networks and feed mechanisms that it's hard to discern a coherent strategy from them.
jonursenbach 16y ago
Protip: Nothing will kill Facebook but Facebook itself.
- angrycoder 16y ago
  You could have said the same thing about Myspace.
aufreak3 16y ago
... and it looks like facebook will soon launch what sounds like a social powered question answer site, according to their "beta" recruitment page - http://www.facebook.com/product_application/ http://www.facebook.com/product_application/ Will it be called FaceOverflow?
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
byoung2 16y ago
I don't think it's possible to launch a Facebook killer. It is more likely that some company will launch something that eventually kills Facebook, but we won't know it is a Facebook killer until afterwards. It's not a matter of beating them on specs...
- petervandijck 16y ago
  Agreed, can't kill Facebook by copying it. It'd be easier to kill Google by copying it (less network effects there), and that's pretty much impossible too.
fizx 16y ago
Hopefully, it does as well as their Twitter killer and their Wikipedia killer.
- kylemathews 16y ago
  I rather like Google Buzz actually and probably now use it 1/5-1/4 as much as Twitter. It's very simple to use with the great GMail inbox integration and connects me to a different set of friends vs. Twitter and Facebook.
  - zmmz 16y ago
    I believe fizx was referring to Jaiku (twitter competitor) and Knoll (Wikipedia competitor), not Buzz. both of which failed to rick off. I think with buzz they are trying to make a service which brings all the features of the various social networks to one platform, its something between Facebook (you can "like" stuff), tumblr (judging by the length of the posts and it allows comments), and twitter. I have to say that buzz is really nice, and I would use it if it didn't have the gmail requirement.
siglesias 16y ago
I think in the last decade "killer" has become something of a cursed moniker. The last person to do a string of "killers" was 90's Bill Gates at Microsoft. When he decided he wanted to take a market, he just took it. Since then products have almost inevitably become killers sort of by accident, especially in the fast-moving and uncertain age of the web. Making a killer thus is kind of like skating to where the puck has been, not where it is going.
jackv 16y ago
The only way to beat facebook is to out-open them. Facebook thrives on being a place where users have very tight control over their identities. Watch for something that strips that control from everyone.
ElbertF 16y ago
For a while now Google has been pushing a much need redesign for Orkut (I don't have it yet, nor have I ever really used the service). I somehow doubt they're giving up it just yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa5xuQZnmtE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa5xuQZnmtE Oh, and wasn't Facebook about to launch a Google killer the other day..?
awa 16y ago
Hmm.. Google already has orkut.com
Aaronontheweb 16y ago
Orkut 2.0: The Reckoning
eddieplan9 16y ago
Google is fighting too many wars now. They need focus and polish, and to stop less competed services from degrading.
tremendo 16y ago
Does Google really see Facebook as a threat? Maybe they could also fund Diaspora like they helped Mozilla. And it seems to me their "big splash" launches of late (App Engine, Docs, Wave, Buzz, checkout) end up underwhelming maybe because of the hype. Their successes (Gmail, maps, text ads) in my perception were more like "soft" launches in which they let the blogosphere and geeks in general do their promoting for them.
- skbohra 16y ago
  Diaspora is yet to show up anything, they have created hype though but nothing visible till date. Google certainly is not going to say anything to be the facebook killer, they will just introduce something and if that works that's great, and if that doesn't its just ok, it will not make much difference until it succeed, failure for Google in this space doesn't make any difference. It is the advantage of being Google.

17 points by bwaldorf 16y ago

Didn't they launch it before Facebook and haven't they since all but abandoned it? www.orkut.com Also, it didn't start out as a Brazilian social network, not sure where the article got that.

code_duck 16y ago
I assume they are calling it a Brazilian social network because Orkut has done particularly well in Brazil. 50% of the site's visits come from Brazil, with the remainder mostly split between the US and India. Orkut is administrated by Google Brazil since mid-2008.
- blasdel 16y ago
  Before that there was a Brazilian invasion of Fotolog. Livejournal had a Russian invasion, Flickr had an early invasion of kids from the U.A.E. and was blocked there for a while, Xanga went asian, Bebo went British. You can't really predict how localized network effects will transform a globally-accessible online community.
  - kingsley_20 16y ago
    I have a hard-to-test-theory involving the nodes with high betweenness-centrality that may explain regional popularity. The "most-connected" (eigenvector or page-rank) nodes may be much less valuable than the "more-diversely-connected" nodes (betweenness centrality being a good measure of this)) in their ability to persuade conversion.
justinph 16y ago
It's going to be called buzzkut, and only for the armed forces.

TomOfTTB 16y ago

At this point I think we can safely say Google is in a perpetual state of "about to launch a Facebook killer" and will continue to be so until they actually manage to kill Facebook. So without any details to back it up Kevin Rose's source is just stating the obvious as far as I'm concerned.

whughes 16y ago
I feel like Google is constantly launching Facebook killers and waiting to see what will stick. They have so many different social networks and feed mechanisms that it's hard to discern a coherent strategy from them.

jonursenbach 16y ago

Protip: Nothing will kill Facebook but Facebook itself.

angrycoder 16y ago
You could have said the same thing about Myspace.

aufreak3 16y ago

... and it looks like facebook will soon launch what sounds like a social powered question answer site, according to their "beta" recruitment page - http://www.facebook.com/product_application/ http://www.facebook.com/product_application/ Will it be called FaceOverflow?

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

byoung2 16y ago

I don't think it's possible to launch a Facebook killer. It is more likely that some company will launch something that eventually kills Facebook, but we won't know it is a Facebook killer until afterwards. It's not a matter of beating them on specs...

petervandijck 16y ago
Agreed, can't kill Facebook by copying it. It'd be easier to kill Google by copying it (less network effects there), and that's pretty much impossible too.

fizx 16y ago

Hopefully, it does as well as their Twitter killer and their Wikipedia killer.

kylemathews 16y ago
I rather like Google Buzz actually and probably now use it 1/5-1/4 as much as Twitter. It's very simple to use with the great GMail inbox integration and connects me to a different set of friends vs. Twitter and Facebook.
- zmmz 16y ago
  I believe fizx was referring to Jaiku (twitter competitor) and Knoll (Wikipedia competitor), not Buzz. both of which failed to rick off. I think with buzz they are trying to make a service which brings all the features of the various social networks to one platform, its something between Facebook (you can "like" stuff), tumblr (judging by the length of the posts and it allows comments), and twitter. I have to say that buzz is really nice, and I would use it if it didn't have the gmail requirement.

siglesias 16y ago

I think in the last decade "killer" has become something of a cursed moniker. The last person to do a string of "killers" was 90's Bill Gates at Microsoft. When he decided he wanted to take a market, he just took it. Since then products have almost inevitably become killers sort of by accident, especially in the fast-moving and uncertain age of the web. Making a killer thus is kind of like skating to where the puck has been, not where it is going.

jackv 16y ago

The only way to beat facebook is to out-open them. Facebook thrives on being a place where users have very tight control over their identities. Watch for something that strips that control from everyone.

ElbertF 16y ago

For a while now Google has been pushing a much need redesign for Orkut (I don't have it yet, nor have I ever really used the service). I somehow doubt they're giving up it just yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa5xuQZnmtE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa5xuQZnmtE Oh, and wasn't Facebook about to launch a Google killer the other day..?

awa 16y ago

Hmm.. Google already has orkut.com

Aaronontheweb 16y ago

Orkut 2.0: The Reckoning

eddieplan9 16y ago

Google is fighting too many wars now. They need focus and polish, and to stop less competed services from degrading.

tremendo 16y ago

Does Google really see Facebook as a threat? Maybe they could also fund Diaspora like they helped Mozilla. And it seems to me their "big splash" launches of late (App Engine, Docs, Wave, Buzz, checkout) end up underwhelming maybe because of the hype. Their successes (Gmail, maps, text ads) in my perception were more like "soft" launches in which they let the blogosphere and geeks in general do their promoting for them.

skbohra 16y ago
Diaspora is yet to show up anything, they have created hype though but nothing visible till date. Google certainly is not going to say anything to be the facebook killer, they will just introduce something and if that works that's great, and if that doesn't its just ok, it will not make much difference until it succeed, failure for Google in this space doesn't make any difference. It is the advantage of being Google.