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Saturday, January 8, 2011

Goolge ID vs Facebook ID

Simply put, facebook is nothing else but a collaboration platform for friends. It builds a network of friends to share media and collaborate upon it. The media that friends collaborate on are pictures, video, postings (News Feed), links (Likes), messages, contacts, events, games, etc.

Now, a facebook account gives users the ability to identify themselves to web sites and that is the topic of this article.

Some efforts to integrate all communications into one platform are already in the works:

AOL is looking to incorporate a multiple platform control panel and unified profile.
Facebook gives you an email address to identify yourself with your Facebook profile. Facebook Messaging System incorporates all communications in one inbox.
Google gives you a somewhat friendly URL to identify yourself with your Google profile. Google has to integrate all its services in one communication and collaboration platform.

My 2011 wish No. 1:
Dear Google,
Make google profiles a one stop communication and collaboration platform and I will surrender my web ID to you. Hell, I even will dump my facebook all together if I only have to log in once to have all my communication channels and collaboration tools in one place.

Well, probably facebook has a place when it comes to casual networking for many (1/2 Billion many). But then again many people is realizing that something better is needed to network more professionally. Friends are one thing, business is a way different animal.

Your options for a web IDso far:
Facebook offer: You@facebook.com
AOL offer: About.Me/You
Google offer so far: google.com/profiles/You

What google could offer:
Google Me: google.me/You

Sub domain: You.google.me

gg URL(gg stands for google): You.gg
or if you have a web page (gg.Yourpage.com) or (Youpage.com/gg)

gp URL (gp stands for google profile or google page): You.gp
or if you have a web page (gp.Yourpage.com) or (Yourpage.com/gp)

The Great Goal
Create value, a web ID that is worth enough to use it not only online but to make it an offline piece of information. So worth it that it can be printed on business cards and even substitute all the other information about a contact since it will be contained in it. Thus, the only information you will ever need from a contact is his or her google profile ID to get all the rest, with the consent from the contact that is (privacy settings to access to information).
Imagine a business card with only one piece of information: your google ID

You.gp

Why? Because the google ID would be a one stop place to get info about you and to communicate and collaborate with you.

If I am a total stranger visiting your google page the first thing I will have to do is to identify myself. If I have a google account I only have to sign in but if I don’t have a google account then I will have to give my email and basic info to get into your google page (meanwhile I also created a google account just to visit your page, imagine the potential for new google accounts).

For a Company
The same scenario can be true for a company even though facebook has a head and probably a whole body start when it comes to company profiles. But there is still place for improvement since it also applies the problem that facebook it’s getting crowded with waste information.

Company options for a web IDso far:
Facebook offer: Company@facebook.com
AOL offer: About.Me/Company
Google offer so far: google.com/profiles/Company

What google could offer:
Google Me: google.me/Company

Sub domain: Company.google.me

gg URL(gg stands for google): Company.gg
or as company options (gg.Company.com) or (Company.com/gg)

gp URL (gp stands for google profile or google page): Company.gp
or as company options (gp.Company.com) or (Company.com/gp)

Now, this can be already done with a facebook account, right? … Wrong my friend. Why? Because again; friends are one thing (Social Network) and business (Professional Network) is a way different animal.

So, if I want to get to know you casually I would chose to browse you facebook account but if what I want is to do business with you, then I would prefer a way more professional network like LinkedIn. But LinkedIn is missing a lot of features that a collaboration platform like facebook has already get us used to have.

Imagine if you had a google profile page with a neat and friendly URL where I can communicate and collaborate with you, professionally that is. Meaning no more social waste that facebook is full of.

Since your google profile page is a one stop communication and collaboration platform you could manage all your accounts from there: social networks, messaging, texting, email, phone calls, voicemail, documents, calendars, rss subscriptions, pictures, videos, music, etc, etc, etc... you name it.

The Real Social Network
Another major characteristic of such google collaboration platform would be the ability to control access by group an by individual, meaning granular privacy options. Like in a collaboration software where I can separate individuals or groups of people by groups (work spaces) and collaborate with them in a closed way. That means no possible combination of things that one group of people from my network can see but not another group.
The granular privacy controls settings should include the ability to set passwords to access groups (workspaces) and to access specific information an areas of the profile just like any company website has certain restricted areas, pages or media only accessible by password.

Facebook made a move in this area with the creation of facebook groups but it did so a little bit late. After a googler presented a work on the matter and then headed to facebook if the news are right.

But google can do a way better work and, if done correctly, then people may find the google collaboration platform so useful to integrate all communications that it can substitute facebook all together. Why? Because if you can successfully separate your casual (Social Network) from your business (Professional Network) and manage everything from a single account, then why the need for another account that is getting so obnoxiously full of garbage like the ol’ MySpace story.

The Universal Web ID
Having a google profile account that gives you a one piece data to share as your contact info (Neat and frienly google profile URL) and works as a universal all including communication and collaboration platform would mean for you and your contacts a one stop to engage in casual (Social) and/or business (Professional) networking. Having the ability to manage your network by group and individual granular access to your page (with the option for passwords)... priceless. Having all that with the quality of the google products (way better than facebook ones)...well my friend, that would be in all a facebook killer!

If such google dream come true, even facebook would have to surrender and be part of this universal and all inclusive one stop communication and collaboration platform. We would witness something like MySpace surrendering to facebook ID.

Google vs Facebook
So, one more time. Let’s compare facebook products against google ones to see just which company is able to build a better communication and collaboration platform, the one that will be the web ID of choice in the future because it will be all inclusive and universal:

Facebook “Social” Inbox vs Google Gmail
Facebook SMS integration vs Google Voice
Facebook Chat (No Video) vs Google Talk
Facebook Places vs Google Maps
Facebook News Feed vs Google Wave
Facebook Updates vs Google Buzz
Facebook Profile vs Google Profile
Facebook Groups vs Ups! (Google get to work!)
Youtube
Blogger
Docs
Reader
Android
Chrome
Google TV
Postini, secured communications
Feedburner
Picasa
Calendar
Translate
Sites
Checkout
Groups
Real Time
Earth
...etc ( and by this I mean etc, etc, etc.)

For a little more details of an hypothetical google collaboration platform you may want to read this articles:

Facebook “Social” waste vs Google “Professional” network
HOW google can defeat the new facebook messaging system

Angel Bookmarks

Related articles:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/02/google-plus-one-brin/

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Facebook “Social” waste vs Google “Professional” network

Simply put, facebook is nothing else but a collaboration platform for friends. It builds a network of friends to share media and collaborate upon it. No innovation here and it has been way too late to implement basic features such video conferences in it’s chat service.
Now, which media friends collaborate on? Pictures, Postings (News Feed), Video, Likes (Links), Messages, Contacts, Events, etc.

So far so good but what is the problem then? Well the rather huge problem is the amount of garbage information that is generated form this friend collaboration platform. Such amount of waste may be fine for teenagers or for casual networking but it’s really bothering the more “serious” and “professional” Internet audience.

Such “professional” Internet audience is sick and tired of trying to make a decent use of a “social” platform that is rather popular but it fails miserably when it comes to do business and professional networking out of it. Why?, because of the amount of waste information. Curation is the key to solve such problem but the network itself is way to casual to try such fix.

Putting the “social” tag to any product such as the “social inbox” to imply that it’s going to be better or revolutionary is getting overstated. Again, for teenagers and more casual matters it may be cool to have “social” this and “social” that but for the professional audience that means even more garbage to bear.

So, as it is right now, the web it’s divided in two with supporters (granted, lots and lots of them) of the “Social Network” and all it’s “Social” waste, and with haters and professional audiences that can’t stand the “Social” garbage but it is spreading like wildfire and there is no alternative to satisfy the more “serious” networking and communication needs.

Facebook has it’s niche in casual matters and will prosper on it. But facebook cannot cater to more serious affairs of people and companies. Facebook and many “Social” networks have an image of delivering to much garbage information and it will be very difficult to change that because it is part of being “Social”.

So, what exactly is needed for the more “serious” and “professional” affairs of people and companies? Any normal person can do fine with a facebook account to take care of family, friends and casual communications but also the same normal person needs to take care of more “serious” and “professional” networking.

And, what are exactly more “serious” and “professional” network needs for normal people and companies? Just compare the quality of information that LinkedIn generates against facebook and you’ll get the point.

What is needed to cater the professional networking needs is a collaboration platform that unifies communications, “Social” and “Professional”, of people and companies.

Now, I agree with Pete Cashmore on his CNN column that any facebook killer won’t look like facebook.

There is not need for yet another “Social” network and facebook can be left alone doing what it’s good at (generating waste information).

Since facebook (at least to the most part of the users) it’s nothing else than a plain vanilla collaboration platform for friends, then a facebook alternative to more professional needs could be a collaboration platform for professional networking. It would not be an innovation either but it can be better structured to do the job for professional networking and communication needs.

When thinking about such collaboration platforms for professional communications some names are already out there doing the job: basecamp, centraldesktop, collaber, bizantra, proofhub, etc. But all of them are pay versions of something that google could easily put together for free with all the google services integrated in a collaboration platform.

The only giant that could possibly do something to build a professional network is google because it has the means and the products to crush facebook services. The only problem is that while facebook it’s already a collaboration platform, google still has to put all its products in an integrated collaboration platform for professional networking needs.

Such professional platform may even appeal to use it for more casual affairs if it has a way to effectively divide sharing and communications amongst “Social” and “Professional” contacts with the use of groups (workspaces) and access controls (granular controls to the point of having the option to grant access to specific content not only by email id but also by passwords). Then facebook could have a big competitor (or a facebook killer).

Let’s enumerate the facebook services against google ones to see just who can build a better collaboration platform::

Facebook “Social” Inbox vs Google Gmail
Facebook SMS integration vs Google Voice
Facebook Chat (No Video) vs Google Talk
Facebook Places vs Google Maps
Facebook News Feed vs Google Wave
Facebook Updates vs Google Buzz
Facebook Profile vs Google Profile
Facebook Groups vs Granular group and individual access
Docs
Android
Postini, secured communications
Feedburner
Youtube
Blogger
Picasa
Calendar
Translate
Sites
Checkout
Groups
Reader
Real Time
Earth
...etc

Thursday, November 18, 2010

HOW google can defeat the new facebook messaging system

Things to consider for the battle:

The Social Inbox vs The Professional Inbox
Closed “social” inner circle vs Open “manageable” groups and channels
One Inbox for different sources vs One Inbox control panel for all communications
Facebook SMS integration vs Google voice
Facebook Chat (no video) vs Google Talk
Facebook News Stream vs Google Wave
Facebook Updates vs Google Buzz
Facebook profile vs Google profile
Facebook identity vs Google identity
Facebook email address vs Google friendly URL

1. The Social Inbox vs The Professional Inbox
The social inbox will be just fine for personal relationships but when it comes to more “serious” or “professional” relationships, the tendency is to avoid social networks and look for more professional services.

2. Closed “social” inner circle vs Open “manageable” groups and channels
A closed inner circle of friends is good if you want to close the door and take care of personal matters but it is limiting if you are looking to expand your opportunities. Professionally you need to open the door, go out of your home sweet home and shout your qualifications to generate opportunities.

3. One Inbox for different sources vs One Inbox control panel for all communications
The facebook approach to messaging is very nice indeed but it is limited to it’s closed network and services which has been called “facebook web inside the web”. A more open platform can include messages from other platforms such tweets, the different messaging systems, the different social netwoks, skype, mobile apps with file, picture, voice and video sharing, etc.

4. Facebook SMS integration vs Google voice
Google has a very big advantage when we it comes to voice and text messaging with the google voice service. It only needs to be integrated in one platform for all communications.

5. Facebook Chat (no video) vs Google Talk
Again google can easily win this one because google talk has video chat which facebook has been late to implement. The google messaging platform can have video chat with mobile apps ready to use the front face cameras that are going to be common in smart phones.

6. Facebook News Stream vs Google Wave
Google wave has the ability to kill just about any messaging, comment or email system that stands in its path. The problem is that the user interface has to be easy enough to be understood by a non technical user. Imagine an option to have real time conversations and collaboration powered by the google wave technology. That is, say you start a conversation by email, then follow the same conversation by the preferred messaging client of your contact, then in the same platform you see something interesting that your contact posted in twitter or facebook and you leave your comment and request your contact to reach you via sms; because your comment leads to your google profile and the different ways that you can be reached, your contact leaves a text and a voice message in your google voice mail; the next time you find your contact connected to its favorite social network and request for a video chat. So far so good but then you want your contact to collaborate in real time in a conversation that you are having with another friend of yours and you use the option that google wave can offer. This way google wave can be used not as a different platform but as part of an all integrating messaging system with the option to turn it on and off at will.

7. Facebook Updates vs Google Buzz
Here facebook is stronger but google can turn things around if it continues to improve google buzz features and integrates it in a general messaging system to access communication from different platforms.

8. Facebook profile vs Google profile
Here we get back to the social vs professional matter. A walled, closed inner circle of personal contacts is fine for social issues but it is inherently limited when you are looking for a professional image to expand your horizon of opportunities.
Google profile can evolve into a one stop communication tool and one stop profile page for any individual and company. It certainly needs a lot of work and features to reach such goal. But the features are already in place with the only problem that they are all loose in different services from google with different user interfaces.
If google can integrate all together to have such professional profile and communications page and in top of that offer a friendly URL then we are talking about a massaging and social page that even facebook can only dream about.
Add the ability to build “land pages” so that companies and people alike can customize the home page of their profiles. But of course, this has to have limits to avoid the nightmare of myspace pages that are so customized as to render them not useful. It has to be standard and easy to navigate even customized profile pages.

9. Facebook identity vs Google identity
The battle to establish a web ID is a tough one but facebook social dress of such identity cannot always get the work done when it comes to more professional needs. The inherently closed facebook platform inhibits the ability to reach a much more wide audience that lives outside facebook walls.
Google can easily reach such audiences of more professional nature because it’s products are open platforms and thus google can put together an all inclusive platform to manage contacts and communications from different networks.
To establish the google profile as the web ID of choice google needs to use the different services that are scattered around and put them together in one stop platform for communications. And to be the one stop for information about a person or company, it needs to integrate all the social networks and web presence the way it’s done with links but with more standards for easy profile browsing.

At the end maybe facebook ID will be used for personal matters and a Google ID will be more convinient for an all inclusive and professional image. Maybe facebook will agree to even participate in this all inclusive platform for communications.

But if facebook refuses to participate and instead continues to pursue forming it’s own web inside the web in an all walled and protected platform of communications, then google has to come up with a personal and closed alternative to it’s otherwise open platforms of communications. Groups may be an option to solve this issue.

Once a one stop communications platform it’s in place, group managing can offer the option to have private conversations and sharing of content. It can even be a password protected process. Imagine having a one stop communications and profile page where your friends can see one thing but your professional contacts cannot and if you want to protect content even further, you can set a password for a person or a group of people to access specific parts of your personal profile exclusive to only such person or group of people. All this can be done with groups managing. This will be a walled garden inside your google profile, a closed inner circle or group of circles that can be managed to the smallest detail. To accomplished such features, the user interface has to be clean and easy to browse. Google is good at building such user interfaces so it’s only matter of putting all together.

10. Facebook email address vs Google friendly URL
This is an extra that only a giant the size of google can offer to all it’s subscribers. Facebook can only go so far as to offer an email address which google has done since very long ago with a service that cannot be easily challenged by any other email service. Google excels at user interface designing. Gmail get the work done with the least amount of visual clutter or graphic crap that other email services are full of.

Now imagine a personal page to home your profile info around the web and your communications. That is not an easy task because you need it to be clutter free to be functional.

Google has started such project with it’s google profile pages but it is unfinished. You get a profile URL address but it is not so friendly. You get buzz but that is in no way enough to communicate, it needs an all inclusive communications platform. You can put links for your other web profiles but it is not standard so you may find it difficult to navigate, for example you only care about twitter, facebook, blog and personal page; but you need to find those in the middle of pages that don’t interest you.

Google needs to finish the job and put all it’s services together in one stop platforms that traduces in one stop page for a personal or company profile and communications. All of this wrapped in a friendly URL that will give you a decent web address for your profile and communications instead of yet another email address.

There are already services in the web that offer free URL friendly redirection to use for your blog for example. Google can implement this service for it’s profile page and communications platform.

Resuming
The ultimate goal it’s to win the race for a web identity platform so google has to answer the new facebook messaging system with a more aggressive universal and all including communications platform.

If google accomplish such communications platform and integrates it in google profile, then google can establish itself as the profile platform of choice for both people and companies.

If google implements group managing for such communications system as to be able to have closed inner circles to share conversations, comments and content (with features such password protected content), then google can start talking about a facebook killer.

Put all of the above together and offer a friendly URL, opposed to an email address, and you can see all the difference that a clean, full of features and backed by a giant tech company, web address has against a poor and yet another email address no matter how social it is.

Let us see it with an example
gp stands for “google page” or “google profile”

For people
Facebook offering: Yourfbnick@facebook.com
Google counter offering: www.You.me.gp
Or even better: www.You.gp

For companies
Facebook offering: Company@facebook.com
Google counter offering: www.Company.com.gp
Or maybe: www.Company.gp

If such addresses offer a one stop for communications and profile information together with a clean user interface and a full package of features, then google can win the battle to establish itself as the number one choice for web identification.