The media are spreading a rumor about a social networking platform by Google, called Circles.

So far, these things have been debunked.

I do not believe that Google could succeed with a “Facebook clone”. The market is already taken, Facebook is too big and had successfully been taking away international markets from local clones. For example in Germany, the other social networks used to be a lot bigger, but Facebook overtook them in just a few months, and the people I know pretty much quit the other networks then.

And I assume Google is aware that unless they have a strong strategy, the network would go the Wave-Buzz route.

At least here in Germany, people are surprisingly concerned by the amount of data Google might have on them, while at the same time they give it to Facebook for free. This is probably due to the media attention received with StreetView. It’s not fair, but that’s life.

However, “social network” is a broad term. Just think of what people actually use facebook for:

  • Games (often even not with their social circle!)
  • Microblogging
  • Photo sharing
  • Email
  • Automatic address book

Now, if you look closely at this list, Google pretty much has all of these, if we ignore the browser games (and they are all over the internet by now, Facebook and without!), then there is just one key ingredient missing for Google: the address book thing.

I believe this “Google circles” thing will largely by a “smart address book” that helps people managing their social contacts in a social network style. And obviously, this can be integrated in various products such as Mail, Picasa, Buzz, …

If Google manages to launch a “contact manager” that makes it really easy for people to manage their social circles, this can be quite a killer. Facebook has “lists” but they are awful to use. It likes to “hide” friends to reduce the amount of information it throws at you. But it doesn’t really organize it for you, for example by social circles or topics. These days for example Facebook could split the news feed into “Japan” and “everything else” I guess.