When big tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. were grappling for click revenues by creating and working on their social media platform, Google also decided to join the bandwagon. Google has had made many failed attempts at trying to open and manage their own social media platform and is still trying.
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Google is mostly known for its search engine website service. Along with offering search engine online services, it also has email, cloud storage, spreadsheet forms, market research platform, etc. Google is managed by an American multinational company and it was launched in 1998. Some of its services include:
- Gmail is an email service that is used to send email from one person to another by use of a web browsing app or the official email app.
- YouTube is an online video-sharing social platform where internet users can share their videos as well as listen and play the ones posted by others.
- Google Drive is a file synchronization and storage service used to store files, share and synchronize them across multiple devices.
- Google Doc is an online word processor program that includes using the word processor, presentation slides, spreadsheet, etc.
Other online services include Google Meet for video calls, Google Chat for communication, Google Contact for storing contact information, Google Calendar for keeping up to date about daily activities, Google Photos for storing your photos.
Google’s attempt at creating a Social Media Platform
Although Google has successfully offered numerous online services to millions around the world through Gmail, Google, Google Docs, and the likes, it also made efforts towards a social networking platform that didn’t work out.
- Orkut: This was Google’s first social media platform which was launched in 2004. It attracted a large fanbase, mostly from Brazil and India. It used to be an open social media platform where users’ posts were public and anyone could comment on them. It also allowed users to rate each other, from ‘Trustworthy’, ‘Cool’ or ‘Sexy’, which would later show up on the user’s profile. Users needed an invitation to join the social networking site. The arrival and success of Facebook lead to Orkut’s decline, but not its decade of continued success, hence, making it Google’s successful social media project. In the end, Google pulled the plug on Orkut in September 2014.
- Google+: In 2011, when Google Plus was launched, it was seen as a serious competitor of Facebook. Google Plus was a social media marketing tool, which encouraged brands to reach out to its consumer with prospects and build relationships. Users also had their own profile where they promoted themselves and create a following of friends, families, and brands. However, Google Plus only seemed to be working for the first six months since its launch after which it started losing its following. Along with that, Google Plus also experienced two data leaks that compromised a large amount of private information of millions of Google Plus subscribers: Users’ private information such as name, age, email address, and occupation were found to be released. After the data leaks, Google closed down its social media platform in April 2019.
- Shoelace: Months after shutting down Google Plus, Google announced that it was launching a new social media platform called Shoelace. It was a social networking experiment that aimed to bring together like-minded individuals with shared interests towards in-person interactions. Users would find others with shared interests, create events and activities and invite everyone with the same interest to join. It was only meant to be New York centralized. Shoelace was Google’s low-key attempt at addressing concerns that smartphones were having a negative impact on people’s physical connections as well as their mental health. However, this project was ended by Google soon after its launch due to COVID restrictions which limited people’s outings.
- Another one of Google’s social networking was Google Buzz which closed down shortly after its launch. It was a social networking, microblogging and messaging tool for users to share links, photos, videos, status messages participate in forum discussions with other users.
Running a social media platform might not ever work out for Google, due to its history of many failed attempts, but it does offer a bunch of successful online services that are still useful in many different contexts.
