What does “social” mean to Google? “Who I am, who do I know, what do I do”
“Who I am, who do I know, what do I do “.
Knowing this about you and me is Google’s social master plan. It was displayed by David Glazer, an engineering director at Google, and quoted by Liz Gannes.
Glazer says:
” If you use Google products, the company already knows who your most important contacts are, what your core interests are, and where your default locations are… expect many product and feature launches that start to connect that information in useful ways.”
Who I am is my prerogative to share. What volume exactly does this question encompass is also my prerogative to define. It is not an engulfing praise of anonymity – it is a worldview that gives us, individuals, the right to define the spectrum of exposure (automatic identification, full display, level of bio and demographics, exposure per transaction/instance, as a starting point,….
Who do I know - the holy grail of social marketing. My social graph- with whom do I converse? As part of a social graph I am a trusted source. A recommendation or reference from me has a much higher value.
What do I do - monitoring my actions, what do I read, share, converse about, save
Connect the information in useful ways – for whom?
It will definitely create an increasing returns cycle for Google. As customers of their revenue streams (ad agencies), the wider the range of their visibility into who we are and what we do, the stronger their dominance. Having an indispensible role at both ends of the food chain –our databases as goldmines for advertisers.
With food comes appetite, I can’t think of a better motivation for Google to do everything it can to strengthen its essential role in all food chains around us.
Google search, Gmail, Google Maps, FeedBurner, YouTube, Google Reader, Google Latitude, Google Chrome… all about my web based actions, whereabouts, identity, location. Add to that 23and me, the DNA decoding company where Google has a stake – and Google will also know where I am from and where I am going – one phase shorter from an omnipotent know-all, sell all, profit from all…
Well, on this journey, we’re all on the wrong bus!
Connecting the dots means, from Glazer’s point f view that applications are no longer siloed within Google, but interoperable and one in the service of the other to offer full scale based results and services.
Can we live without Google? I don’t think so, and we shouldn’t.
But we should fear Google as Big Brother!
Do we want an open web that has Google Inside components in every aspect of our interactions? Do we want Google’s lens as an extrovert window into everything we do on the web?
The industry will not fight our war. The web and our social spheres are ours. An open interoperable social web is what we all strive for, but not dominated by a social identity omnivore.
It is up to us to claim our rightful place.
What can make the web truly ours?
- Open platforms that cultivate interoperability
- Open code, shared and developed bottom up by all – for the mutual benefits of all
- Social businesses that are built around long tail micro rewards depending on the food chains created around users. Since we are the core of all these food chains they want to monopolize, we should put us in our rightful place.
- Transparent food chains where we are a legitimate part of the food chains created by us, a clear and transparent partner to these food chains and be rewarded as well.
- Reversing the paradigms – from PUSH to Pull
- Instead of us depending on providers’ facilitated services, providers asking us for the right to target and offer us.
- Creation of new middle grounds, symbols and codes that will give users handles of assessing their level of exposure and creating the mindset and culture that providers will be considered green and ethical if they post it
- Total transference of balance – I, user, am in the driver’s seat, with the wheel in my hand, deciding to what extent I want to disclose, share or hide.
- Shifting the focus to concerns on quality of service, satisfaction, new value chains….
- Connecting users and activities around specific context, where users have dominance over their context.
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