Will Google Fail Again at Social Media?

Google is reportedly working on a blockbuster social networking product, after a string of failed attempts to get in on that market. But after so many failures, you have to wonder if Google culturally able to do social networking?

Google is working with several vendors of popular online games to develop a social networking service to compete with Facebook, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal's Amir Efrati. Google watchers are calling the service "Google Me." Among the companies it's talking to are Playdom, Electronic Arts' Playfish, and Zynga Game Network, vendors of the Facebook hit Farmville. Google recently took a financial stake in Zynga.

Google has tried to launch or acquire social networks several times, but fell on its face almost every time. Buzz, Orkut, and Dodgeball have never risen above niche products.

Social networking is arguably alien to Google's DNA. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Adam Rifkin explains the problem with a delightful metaphor: Internet users can be divided into two groups -- pandas and lobsters.

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