Yeah after looking at it for a couple minutes, trying hard to figure out what's so special about a Google News screenshot, I came to the conclusion they all must be getting exited about a "Share"-Button? This whole thing would be far less interesting without the big red CONFIDENTIAL letters.
I subscribe to the idea that the eventual evolution of social networks is "openness" (eg, fb will either be killed by an open 'social protocol' or or be forced to open itself).
Google's strategy shouldn't be another social network, or a closed social layer atop their current properties. They should invest heavily in the technologies that would kill fb and open them up, completely - opensocial, diaspora, etc.
I would love to see someone compete with FB to prevent it from becoming a total monopoly. Having said that, it is really difficult to believe that google can do that, based on the last few new products from google.
If Google really wants to succeed at organizing that segment of the world's information, it should write a facebook app that ties in to your (and your friends') account info.
If you could sync your information on FB and other social networking sites to Google so that it knows the relationship outright, I think they could give you much more useful information.
When I've posted this sort of thing before, I totally erase the text that's there, put different (wrong) text there and then do a terrible job of blurring it.
Just to annoy people like yourself!
Probably a bit mean, but I like to make these things a bit more interesting.
Anyway my point is that could easily be what's happened here, you don't know it's really a bad job.
From the very limited information and a screenshot of a small portion of what is to be Google+1 - my opinion is that it isn't meant to be a social network in the sense of Twitter or Facebook, but more a social sharing service like Digg or Reddit - if this is the case, there could be potential from both a centralization point (they already have the links and content and ranking and everything) as well as a identity control point with knowing more about what you like and dislike based on your sharing trends.
From that perspective I think it's a pretty interesting reveal..
On a slight tangent, I really love Google simply because they are a search engine. I mean how easy is it for us to start using Bing? We could do it instantaneously. Google could easily start hemorrhaging users, and every day their engineers fight their best to prevent that from happening. I just love how these smart-ass people obviously enjoy trying to tackle tough problems while creating a business that depends on happy customers (at least that's my idolized opinion of them).
Although Google wants to create a social graph of it's own, I hope they don't let it go to their heads. That is false land that they are seeking to claim.
I dont really see how is this amazing or interesting...
Its just a toolbar, nothing important has been leaked, and also to me it looks like a leak with marketing purposes, to make us start hearing about the google product and wait for it with more anxiety.
Sure, but nobody know that, nobody is actually in it and it has a weird name.
It also fails to present an immediate usefulness that would lure people.
On the other hand, most people already have a regular Google account, so if they manage to push some social integration in there which a less crappy name (ok, that's a personal opinion, but I think loop sounds much smoother), then they might get a chance to get a foothold in the segment.
Something like a cross service interface with other social networks would be of course the real launcher, but that will be a long and bloody way, as we saw in recent history.
Man, everyone keeps dumping on the name of Orkut, but nobody seems to know it's the surname of the guy who originally wrote it before Google scooped him up. So everyone who dumps on Orkut as a product name also accidentally dumps on his family name. Even if they don't mean it, that must totally suck. :(
Hmm. Facebook iterating into full on search (and not just product recommendations from friends, which might be possible) is a vastly more difficult task than Google finding a way to enter the social market (where they have a small foothold anyway).
I highly doubt this will be a generic button to share to your other social networks; that would be a poor product choice from their perspective.
Well I'm wondering what else it could possibly be. This was all formulated with the name kept in mind as well. Google +1. If that is correct then everything is about +1ing what you find on the web. Or this could just be an elegant hoax. But given that it is Tech crunch they are pretty much the best at grabbing leaks.
By the way, just to point out one thing, I'm not entirely sure either task, FB iterating into full on search and Google entering the social market is simpler than the other. But yes Google already has its very firm foothold in search. But then again you might not be considering that Bing could easily partner up with FB is the past trends are anything to go by. In which case Google should be doing there best to come up with something special.
And question. Why exactly would it be a poor product choice? I'm basing my thinking on the design of rockmelt, it has the share button and the friend edges which basically let you watch your twitter feeds and chat with fb friends from the browser. I hid the friend edges when demoing the software, wanted to save it for the final blow. I tell you I could have left with the share button and they would have thought it was a pretty neat idea.
That is obviously not a majority vote but it might be an indicator that the share button is cooler than we think. Although yes. With all the hype that was surrounding Google Me... This does feel like a kick in the head.
Rockmelt is a browser; it is apathetic which social site you want to use. That you are using one is a plus for them :)
For Google acting as a clearing house for social data is fine.. but even better, have your own social graph which, linked with search data is incredibly valuable to them.
Google have wanted their own social graph for a long time now - I don't think they would drop that lightly.
What exactly are we looking at? A very generic-looking toolbar which might or might not be related to so-called "Google +1"?
TechCrunch looking for cheap publicity based on, well, nothing.