Google, Yahoo trying for social networks again
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Written By Emily Koh | July 9, 2007 | Share This
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Google and Yahoo have been gunning to become players in social networking, but have had fairly lackluster runs when compared to leading networks like Facebook or MySpace. Now it looks like both companies are at it again, but are approaching it a bit differently. TechCrunch broke the news of a new social network project over at Yahoo entitled “Mosh.” Few details are available as of now, but it’s presumably going to replace Yahoo 360, which has barely registered a blip as Yahoo’s social network attempt.
Then there’s Google, who is developing the “next-generation” social network along with Carnegie Mellon University’s Human Computer Interaction Institute, according to Google Operating System. Called Socialstream, the project aims to create a “unified social network” (USN) by allowing users to manage various online identities on multiple social networks in one centralized area. Posting photos, commenting on blogs and browsing photo-sharing sites could all be done in one location instead of having to browse all the different sites.
From the official Socialstream project site:
Socialstream emphasizes improving social connections by making it more efficient to communicate with, share with, and view the social content of all the people in a user’s online social network. Socialstream provides a compelling user experience because it aggregates content across many different networks so a user has a single location to discover new content and communicate. The goal of Socialstream is to present social information in a way that ties it to the person who posted the information, and not the site from which it came.
Pete Cashmore at Mashable notes that Socialstream will definitely be more user-centric than network-centric — Socialstream itself is not really a network per se, but rather a hub for all of your various networks that you can utilize. He also points out that Socialstream is assuming all services will have APIs, which isn’t the case right now, since most networks seem to operate on that closed, walled-in mode (Facebook is a great example, where all your information is only available to those within your network, be it a school, business, or region). Still, it’s a new approach to creating a different kind of network, and offering new innovative takes on social networking is the way for Google and Yahoo to go if they’re hoping to make a significant entry into social networking — Facebook and MySpace have already cemented their places, so they’ll need to find a way on offering a new spin.
Topics: Google, Social Media, Yahoo! |
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