More On Google Latitude and Lack of Google Social Networking
Ok in the past 24hrs I’ve become a bit obsessed with thinking about Google Latitude, Orkut and the way that Google is positioning its locaton aware friend finding service. To be fair, I know next to nothing about Orkut, except that it’s Google’s foray into social networking and mostly used by Brazilians… I do the whole social networking thing, but just on Facebook and LinkedIn and I don’t live in Brazil, so there ya go.
So the way I see it Google is not rolling out Latitude on Orkut, but instead via Maps and Gmail/Gtalk which on one hand makes perfect sense given the number and geography of users, but on the other hand makes no sense because this product is so VERY PERFECTLY suited for social networking. So if Google is rolling out what essentially is in its essence a social networking capability, but not plugging it into its existing social networking application… what is up?
Hmm…
- Latitude, lets you know the whereabouts of people and share your whereabouts with them.
- Orkut, Google social networking application, suprisingly not seeing much uptake outside of Brazil and seemingly not being pushed or invested in by Google despite massive popularity of social networks such as Facebook.
- Google CEO Schmidt says “The arrival of a truly mobile Web, offering a new generation of location-based advertising, is set to unleash a huge revolution… the recreation of the Internet.”
Everyone in LBS always has the debate on whether location is just a feature of something else or its own thing in its own right? I am wondering if maybe Google sees social networking in the same light, simply as a feature to something larger. Latitude is without a doubt a social networking feature and Google is baking it into its core product capabilities… makes you wonder if we’ll have a separate social networking site we visit in a few years from now or if it will be just become an extension of every day communication tools we use. Look up Bobs phone number and email and while you’re at it read the top 25 things I never knew about Bob as well as who he is friends with, where he is right now and what he is blogging about, etc.
Maybe Latitude is one the first anchors in this development?
