Google Me – the social network of the future?

Wednesday 15 September

Does Facebook have anything to fear from Google Me?

Never short of appetite for taking on new challenges, technology colossus Google appears to be preparing a foray into one of the few online markets it doesn’t yet have a strong presence in: social networking.

Rumours of a Google social network are certainly nothing new – the huge global success of Facebook makes for a compelling argument, after all – but at a company conference this week Google CEO Eric Schmidt went one step futher and confirmed that Google Me is no longer rumour. It’s very real, and if Schmidt is to be believed isn’t far from seeing the light of day.

Google already has much of the groundwork in place, after all. In Gmail it has not only one of the most popular webmail services on the planet, but one that can effectively act as an online file repository for its users and offer live chat between contacts too.

Throw in the ability to integrate with Google Maps, Google Docs, Picasa, YouTube and the countless other Google services out there, and suddenly Google Me starts to sound like it has a lot going for it.

Of course, critics will point to the badly managed introduction of Google Buzz as proof that the whole doesn’t necessarily equate to the sum of its parts. The instant messaging overlay to Gmail was poorly conceived and insufficiently tested – even Google itself admitted as much – but it’s unlikely that the company will make the same mistake twice.

Schmidt has hinted that Google Me’s success will depend heavily on being able to allow its users to quickly populate their contacts list from other services, including the likes of Facebook. Given that Facebook users can port over their Gmail contacts into the social network, Schmidt says he hopes Facebook will be gracious enough to return the favour – though he says there are backup plans in place if need be.