Google Circles
Search engine may launch social network to directly compete with Facebook.
Google, the world's largest search engine, run by Sergei Brin and Larry Page, wants to compete with Facebook. And it may launch a mega social networking project in the coming hours. This is Google Circles, a service that would allow users to share texts, photos, music, and any digital file with their circle of friends. The information comes from American journalist Marshall Kirkpatrick, editor of ReadWriteWeb, a blog specializing in media and technology.
The service was developed by Chris Messina, a programmer who participated in the creation of several successful social networking projects. With Circles, Google could compete directly with Facebook, but while maintaining a more restrictive privacy policy. Today, one of the major criticisms leveled against Mark Zuckerberg's service is the weakness of its privacy controls.
However, by restricting its network to users' actual circle of friends, Google's service may have a slower growth rate than its rivals – Facebook is on track to have 1 billion connected users by the end of the year.