So the fact that Google has a bunch of loosely connected tools that hypothetically could form a social networking site if it was pushed a little harder suddenly

So the fact that Google has a bunch of loosely connected tools that hypothetically could form a social networking site if it was pushed a little harder suddenly makes it a "Facebook-Killer"? Please, the strategies that this article is suggesting would only make a Google's site a hacked-up clone of Facebook. Even if they could find a way to unify all the different interfaces, it wouldn't give Google anything new or different. Facebook has messages, pictures, video, notes (not quite blogging, but good enough), chat (again, not the best, but useful), and a good event system. These aren't provided by apps, they come built-in with Facebook. On the other hand, Google has a different app for each of their versions of these services. Just because they set up a minimalist profile page doesn't change much. Hey, here's an idea, can we break out of the mindset that everything has to turn into a social network? Think hard, what else could Google do by consolidating services? At the least, one meta-service that seamlessly combines everything would be easier to market and manage. What makes a social network different from simply a collection of profiles is that people have to interact with it. They discuss topics. plan events, have fun. Well, the services are already there, so it is possible for Google to track much of that information. Personally, I'm a little intrigued by the insertion of the map, maybe this will be a geo-based service, who knows?