NEW YORK — Online search leader Google Inc. is taking yet another stab at social networking, as it tries to go up against Facebook in this wildly popular and lucrative segment of the Internet. This time, the project is called Google+, and it aims to make online sharing more like real life.
“We think people communicate in very rich ways,” said Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google. “The online tools we have to choose from give us very rigid services.”
Other social-networking tools make selective sharing within small groups difficult. They don’t allow for the nuances that people are used to in offline communication and because they call so many acquaintances “friends,” Gundotra said in a blog post announcing the service.
Many Facebook users, for instance, find it difficult to limit their status updates to small groups of people so that their co-workers aren’t exposed to party photos or their parents aren’t privy to flirtatious posts. Though Facebook has tried to address this with a much-hyped “Groups” feature, it’s not clear how many people use it.
Gundotra’s criticism seems aimed at Facebook, the world’s largest online social network. Facebook has become synonymous with online sharing since its founding seven years ago. In a prepared statement, Facebook said only that “we’re in the early days of making the Web more social, and there are opportunities for innovation everywhere.”
Google, which dominates Internet search with two-thirds of the U.S. market, has been experimenting with social tools since late 2009 with limited success.
