Google has tried to enter the universe of social networks a few times, but never had the expected success. Orkut was perhaps the company’s most successful experiment in Brazil and India, but it did not catch on in the rest of the world, which caused the company to discontinue the service.
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The truth is that the social media segment is highly profitable, generates high power of influence and strengthens the image of any company. Google, as the tech giant that it is, is trying to break into the industry to further expand its tentacles on the global internet.
The biggest problem lies in the company’s failed projects, without being able to put on anything innovative or attract people’s attention. You may know some frustrated attempts by Google to create a strong competitor for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
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Social networks already launched by Google
7. Shoploop
At the height of the covid-19 pandemic, Google launched an experimental social network project that mixed videos and online shopping. Shoploop was incubated in Area 120 and was intended to rival TikTok, Instagram and the main e-commerces of the world.
The idea was to provide a feed accessible to everyone with support for up to 90-minute clips demonstrating products. These contents were hosted on the servers, shown whenever someone was interested in an item for sale. It was possible to make the purchase right there, without leaving the app, or follow the brand to receive first-hand releases.
The platform ended up being very focused on beauty products and cosmetics, an area that had already been found on Pinterest, Insta and TikTok. As there weren’t many editing options or a robust algorithm, the project flopped in never having landed in countries other than the United States.
6. Threadit
Threadit is a short video social network focused on the corporate market, a kind of mix between TikTok and LinkedIn. The differential resides in a utility that allows you to record clips or the computer screen to share with teammates.
Although it is possible to produce videos of up to 70 minutes, the proposal is to work with content in short formats, which, according to the developers, generate more engagement and views. The look is very simple, the tools are intuitive and there is no recommendation algorithm, so you only see content from those you follow.
The service was initially tested at Area 120, the company’s experimental project incubator, and incorporated into Google Workspace. The platform was launched without much pretension in March 2021 only for residents of the United States, but ended up being released to more locations, including Brazil. The social network still exists, but it never caught on in business, so it’s likely to go to the dreaded Google graveyard soon.
5. Museletter
Museletter is another Google initiative incubated in Area 120, in an attempt to offer a mix between social networking and newsletter distribution. The app allows the creation and delivery of newsletters through a public profile or direct sending via mailing list.
The service works like a Google service centralizer, as it uses several tools to do the actions: Gmail, Drive, Docs and Slides. The idea is to compete with competitors that offer pure newsletter services, adding touches of social interactions to make daily production more reachable.
This platform would be completely free and would not charge fees for selling subscriptions. To raise money, the bet would be to deliver premium features to those who consolidate on the platform, such as custom domains, welcome emails and other exclusive facilities. The service never left the incubator when it was abandoned with less than three months to live.
4. Google Wave
Google Wave was an ambitious idea of the company in 2009: a communication protocol that integrated e-mail, exchange of messages via chat and a kind of “wiki”. All of this would be integrated with a pinch of social networking, as users would be able to interact with each other in threads similar to Twitter, but organized like an email inbox.
The idea seemed very promising because it integrated several company services, such as Chat, Docs and Gmail, running directly in the browser in an optimized way. The interactive features also seemed to be very useful, things that Orkut and Facebook didn’t have at the time.
Although it caused a lot of frenzy at the time of its release, the tool never caught on. It’s hard to know what caused people to turn away from Wave, but it’s probably related to the somewhat confusing concept and a rather complicated interface for laymen. A year after launch, the social network stopped receiving improvements until the effective closure in 2012 – considered one of the biggest “flops” of the last ten years.
3. Google Buzz
Google Buzz was a social network considered the precursor of Google+, as it brought several elements that were incorporated in the future. One of the main new features was media sharing, status updates and the ability to create Twitter-style conversations.
The platform was positioned within Gmail and had a mobile version, which attracted the attention of many onlookers. This twitter footprint helped bring Passarinho Azul fans closer, but it did not innovate in any way, so it would not make sense to migrate from a consolidated platform.
Google Buzz had a very short life: it was born in February 2010 and died in October 2011. At the time, the company still had Orkut and Friend Connect running, so the three platforms ended up competing with each other. The company itself said it failed to launch, leaving behind issues of transparency, privacy and user controls.
2. Friend Connect
In 2008, Orkut faced tough competition from Facebook, MySpace and Friendster, so it couldn’t break through in the United States. That’s when Google decided to bet on a unique system of compatibility with third-party websites and apps, the so-called Social Graph, an integrated tool of Friend Connect.
It was a period in which a decentralization of social media was promised, leaving the closed environment for integration with websites. Links to non-media sites would display small images and descriptions, allowing for more security and taking people off the service. Friend Connect had an integration API and even allowed seeing who were the members interested in that site, as it happens in Facebook groups, giving more strength to external content.
Although it won the hearts of some website creators, as it allowed an increase in traffic and a stronger image, it never really caught on as a social network. Facebook even had online games, while FC’s premise was just to use information interlinked and extracted from websites, which was too little to compete.
With the arrival of Google+, Friend Connect was abandoned for good in 2011, incorporated into the new social network as a mere tool.
1. Google+ (Google Plus)
Google+ was the closest attempt at a full social network after the global failure of Orkut. At the time of the launch of Google Plus in June 2011, Facebook already reigned supreme by leaving behind rivals like Friendster and MySpace. Big Tech tried to annoy Zuckerberg’s platform with a bold announcement: only those who had invitations could enter, which led people to intense e-commerce at unrealistic costs.
The idea was all based on bringing together people with common interests, the so-called Circles, copied from the concept of Facebook Groups and Orkut Communities. In addition to targeted conversations, Circles allowed sharing photos in a restricted way — yes, Google Photos was born there — and documents created in apps such as Docs, Sheets and Slides.
For a long time, the service even managed to gain a considerable base of people, mainly due to the integration with Google services. In the United States and in part of Europe, Plus gained the attention of many, but ended up being sidelined by the strengthening of competitors.
Even in decline, people still used the Plus button for many years to log in to websites with the social network profile, saving time filling in data. In January 2019, Google announced the deactivation of all personal Google+ accounts, with the final burial scheduled for April 2, 2019.
Read the article on Canaltech.
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