engine - 5:29 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)

Rumor: Google Me May Be Google's Next Social Web Experiment [news.cnet.com]

"Google me" sounds like a lame pickup line delivered near closing time, but it might also be Google's latest attempt at becoming relevant in social media. Kevin Rose, of Digg fame, got the speculation rolling Sunday with a tweet that Google was working on a social service called Google Me that would compete with Facebook, perhaps Google's biggest rival for attention on the Internet. On Tuesday, former Facebook executive and Quora founder Adam D'Angelo took things a little further by declaring on Quora that "this is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this." So what might Google Me actually be? No one seems to really know. But it does appear to be somehow related to one's Google Profile, a service that got a shot in the arm with the debut of Google Buzz earlier this year. Google Buzz lets users share links, pictures, and thoughts with friends who find them through their Google Profile, but Buzz hasn't exactly put a dent in Facebook's growth.

I've watched this rumor pick up a little speed, however, only Google really knows. This may be nothing, or it could be the next service dreaming of being a Facebook killer (not).

It's clear that Google is after a bigger slice of the social media pie, which it's only tasted with buzz or orkut.