Google Social Network

You may or may not have heard the rumblings, but Google seems to be planning a social network of sorts. They themselves have already openly said that they are working to integrate social aspects to their products. There also have been several changes over the last little while to Google's services that indicate something is coming soon. You have most likely noticed that across most of their services there is a new navigation bar across the top of the page, including a settings icon in the top right. 


In addition to just the new navigation bar, Techcruch is one of many who reported a couple months ago about a leaked picture showing additional icons and information in the navigation bar, pictured below. There's a 'Share' button, a location for a potential profile pic, and also some sort of counter. Who knows what will make the final cut or be changed up before it's all released, but it at least gives indication of their work on the project.

Another sign came just a few days ago when Google changed things around with their Google Profiles pages. It now makes the profiles a bit more like a social networking site profile page (think Facebook). There are all sorts of different fields for sharing all the information that you'd like.

I'm excited by the possibilities that could come from social aspects being heavily integrated with Google. I find myself spending a good portion of my time in Google products throughout the day, and so having social aspects added to improve the product would be welcomed. Once you are linked up with your friends or colleagues online, it would only help to improve search results, and sharing across all the different product offerings. Of course there might be some that are nervous or hesitant to share all your details with Google to make the 'whole package' work, but something to remember is that if you use a cell phone, your provider already knows plenty of information about you already (phone calls, texts, location, etc...), so what harm could there be from another company like Google knowing it as well?..

So, what are you waiting for!? Go make sure your Google Profile is setup just the way you'd like it and get ready for Google Me/Google +1, or whatever they might end up calling it!