With Facebook linking up to Twitter in an attempt to create a social media, real-time web mashup and a raft of Facebook G+-like features being implemented it was only a matter of time before Google turned the heat up.
The thermometer has just gone off the scale with Google+, a social network which was invitation-only, being thrown open to anyone, to join, today.
The announcement, though not entirely unexpected, is a little bit of a shock given its timing. Google has been careful to scale Google+ intake in direct line with its capacity and new features being rolled out and to throw the doors to its social network wide open, so quickly, signals a furious increase in the behind-the-scenes development pace.
While momentous and a direct answer to those in the media and the social media marketing scene who have been quick to criticise the network what is really important here is the timing of it and what it signifies. Google+ opens its doors to the public when:
1. Google+ Business Pages are being rolled out - Google needs to have business and consumers come together.
2. Google Wallet is announced - This is a massive plan to bring online and offline commerce together in one mobile interface which acts as a bridge for the two.
3. Google Offers - are announced. When Google offered $6 billion for Groupon and was rebuffed it took the path of least resistance and went ahead and created its own network, acquiring companies and technologies, along the way which can help it do so. Google Offers adds Groupon's deals with Google's new sense of social into a seamless online/offline, mobile and web-enabled environment.
4. In the lead up to the holiday sales. In the commercial calendar the battle for Christmas sales is just beginning. Usually this means that the web begins to run hot and Google wants to capitalise on the action before the year is out.
Google's deceptively simple action shows that the company is on fire and working at a feverish pitch which, for a global conglomerate, is simply unheard of. Much has been made lately of Facebook v Google+, in terms of size and functionality and the difference a Twitter/Facebook mashup will make. Although functionality is what we see, on the web, of much greater importance is the enthusiasm, energy and focus which makes something happen. Because this is necessary in order to make the next thing happen, an insufficient amount of energy and focus often signals an inability to see things through, respond to fast developments and innovate on the fly. Google, right now, appears to have sufficient focus, energy and enthusiasm to change the online world for everyone, forever.
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