What Would Google Have to Do to Make You Stop Using Facebook?

What Would Google Have to Do to Make You Stop Using Facebook?
Chris Crum | Staff Writer

"Google Me" Rumor Fuels More Google vs. Facebook Discussion

Last week, it was talk about how Facebook's "going to war" with Google. This was based on Facebook using "likes" as relevance indicators in it's search results. As some pointed out, Facebook has a long way to go when it comes to competing with Google in search. Bing stands to gain more than anyone, as far as Facebook improving its search is concerned.

This week, it's all about Google "going to war" with Facebook as a social network. Just as there is little evidence to suggest that Facebook poses a serious threat to Google the search engine, there is little to support the notion that Google is a threat to Facebook the social network.

Do you consider Google a threat to Facebook? Tell us why or why not.

The discussion rippling throughout the Blogosphere was kicked off when Digg Founder Kevin Rose tweeted:

An interesting enough post, sure, but also one that caters to much more speculation than any real facts. A popular version of the speculation is that Google will do more with its profiles. This would make sense, given that this is the central hub for one's Google account, and could be somewhat thought of as Google's version of the Facebook Wall.

Obviously Google has other social services like Buzz, Friend Connect, Orkut, Gmail, GTalk, Wave, Reader, Docs, YouTube, SideWiki, etc. As I have said numerous times in the past, Google is essentially already a social network, and these services are connected throughout a Google ID, the one that is tied to your Google Profile. It is really just a matter of how these are connected. Another way to look at it is that Google is the social network, and each product is one of the features.

Is Google going to kill Facebook with a new announcement? Probably not. While it will certainly be interesting to see what is announced (if anything), and it might be a very good product or feature, people are highly unlikely to stop using Facebook because of whatever it is. Chances are, you already use both Google and Facebook, and I seriously doubt that will stop anytime soon (at least for any reason related to this).

Eric Eldon at InsideFacebook points to comments from former Facebook executive Adam D'Angelo, who says Google's project is "not a rumor" and that there is "a large number of people working on it." Based on his comments, Google is modeling the project off of Facebook.

Even if he says it's not a rumor, we still have to treat it as such until we hear word from Google, and we all know that Google doesn't comment on rumors.

In another interesting sidestory, Matthew Papakipos, an engineer who "started and managed the Chrome OS project" is now with Facebook. One can only imagine what this means.