Google Launching a Twitter-killer for Gmail

[bill]

Some sites are saying that Google's new social features for Gmail could be out as early as tomorrow.

Gmail, Too, Seeks to Rival Facebook [online.wsj.com]

Google Inc. is taking a swipe at Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. with a new feature that makes it easier for users of Gmail to view media and status updates shared online by their friends.

Google could announce the new Gmail feature as soon as this week, said people familiar with the matter. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

The change adds a module to the Gmail screen that will display a stream of updates from individuals a user chooses to connect with, said one of these people. It is a format popularized by Facebook and Twitter.

[StoutFiles]

The internet is slowly involving into a stream of incoherent ramblings of what people are currently doing, about to do, or just thinking of doing.

[J_RaD]

orkut round 2?

[Hugene]

Actually, if done right, this could be a very good ad-on to Gmail and reduce the amount of BS created by "social networks".

Point in hand: the current way I use Facebook is only through Gmail. I login to my mail and see if I have received an (important) message from Facebook. If not I don't go to FB, if yes, I do go to FB.

I hate having to login to many systems, so I avoid going to facebook unless there is something there explicitly for me. I see all the rest of the content as garbage.

Basically, I use facebook as a static-web-page-mass-email system.

Now, if G brings social networks to Gmail, but in an intelligent and controllable way, then I am all for it. I might do more, just because I don't have to re-login to Facebook and Twitter and see all the garbage others do. I want to make my own garbage in peace ;)

[CyBerAliEn]

Point in hand: the current way I use Facebook is only through Gmail. I login to my mail and see if I have received an (important) message from Facebook. If not I don't go to FB, if yes, I do go to FB.

Ditto. I never bother logging in unless I have a specific purpose (creating an event) or got something (an email saying I have a message, wall post, etc; of course, because the email usually contains the post, I sometimes don't even bother logging in to FB).

The big issue with this though, is that this behavior is a minority. Many, many people login to FB and "surf" it. They check on friends, what people are up to, find new friends, chat via FB, etc. It has sort of just become "something to do".

Ugh... it is particularly abundant at university. Walk into any lecture and probably every person with a laptop is on FB. Walk into a lecture room that has computers, and almost everyone is on FB (even while professors teach). Randomly grab someone's iPhone/smartphone, and I bet you they'll be on Facebook or using an app to access FB.

It's the current addiction in my generation (I'm 23) and it is scary lol...

Unfortunately it seems the vast push from the "populace" is to have a "social" internet. *roll eyes*

Kinda makes me think of when TV was introduced to reality TV --- seemed great at first, but it all quickly turns to trash.

[frontpage]

The internet is slowly involving into a stream of incoherent ramblings of what people are currently doing, about to do, or just thinking of doing.

LOL. Just like in real life conversations.

[Kufu]

This sounds more like the integration of Google Wave into Gmail.

addendum: "If it catches on, it'll be good. I'm sure they'll start working this stuff into Gmail eventually." -Me

Apparently I said this to my cousin in October of 2009 (just checked my Google Wave account).

Who would like to know their future? Only $5. ;)

[StoutFiles]

This sounds more like the integration of Google Wave into Gmail.

If people won't come to Google Wave, then I guess they'll bring Google Wave to us.

[J_RaD]

but it didn't catch on and nobody wanted it, now they are just shoving it onto us.

This does seem like a little knee jerk reaction from google, upset facebook and bing made a deal?

I guess they'd rather kick some sand on facebook and do their own "social" site then make a deal.

[trav85]

I think it's a matter of openness that makes them inferior to facebook and twitter. Google is very local and doesn't want everything public, one. Two, they don't like having splash pages and public profiles to aggregate the microblogging data. Just my amateur observation.