Ok, so the rapture didn’t start late.  But the first two things are true.

Can Google actually make a social media platform successful?  Well, it is trying… again.

In all honesty, I really like this concept.  Google is dominating the social media news landscape today with its unveiling of Google+, which began rolling out just yesterday.

Most notably, Google+ seeks to categorize your friends into different “buckets.”  I won’t do the video justice trying to explain it, but many are speculating that this might have the ability to battle Facebook.

Just another flop that won’t make it out of the gate (see: Google Wave)?  Or could this have some staying power?

Oh, and in other news… MySpace finally was sold!  News Corp. paid $580 million back in 2005, and today the all-but-dead social networking site was sold to an advertising network called Specific Media for $35 million.  Yowza.

Matt Smedley

That’s right, Google is rolling out a new social product.  It’s called +1 and is designed similarly to Facebook’s “Like” button.

The idea here is that when someone searches for something on the web, that person has the option to +1 any of the search results.  Once someone has clicked on the +1 button, the whole world can see that you have given the particular link your stamp of approval.

For example, once I have signed into my Google account and enabled the +1 feature, I can leave my mark on search results that I like and recommend.

Already, tons of questions have been posed by the social media community…

-Will this be another way SEO companies “game” search results?

-Given Google’s history of launching other social media products (Buzz, Wave, etc.), will +1 even take off?

-What are the potential privacy issues?

Given that Google just announced the news today, I’m sure there will be a deluge of opinions both for and against the long-term viability and usefulness of the new feature.

Me?  I think the idea is cool and has great potential.  We will follow the news and provide detailed analysis as more people jump in and try the product for themselves.

Matt Smedley

Yesterday, news was unveiled via Google’s official blog that the company will be changing the way that it works in China.  In 2006, Google launched www.google.cn.  At that time, Google played by the Chinese government’s rules by sensoring its search content.

Fast forward to today and Google has decided to update that decision to no longer filter and sensor content.  This will likely mean Google will be banned from China.  This move could seriously impact Google’s revenue stream because it creates an opportunity for competitors such as Bing or Yahoo to gobble up market share.  Over the past several years, Google has seemingly lost some of its original cache and this move helps reestablish one of the company’s earliest corporate motos: Don’t be evil.

There also is plenty of news coming out about Facebook privacy and security.  Over the past weekend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told a live audience that he believes the world has changed and that we have become less private and more public, which flies in the face of Facebook’s founding principles of protecting individual privacy.

More and more, privacy is becoming a heavily debated issue.  In fact, it has become such a large issue that companies are creating Chief Privacy Officer positions (CPO).  Consider for a moment the war that is being waged for companies that deal in virtual products.  Knowledge is truly power.  By gathering more user information you are able to more clearly identify and target specific audiences, which you then can create revenue systems around .  2010 should be an interesting year to watch how the balance between maintaining or decreasing user privacy plays out.  To put some perspective on just how much information is being gathered about you, check out this interview with an anonymous current Facebook employee.

*UPDATE*

It looks like Google is getting a lot of attention in China and across the world for the decision that was made to no longer tolerate censoring of its search results.  Check out this great article in the LA Times about the amount of people who are congregating outside Google’s Beijing offices in show of support.

Matt Smedley