Eric Schmidt: ‘Google Me Is A Social Upgrade, Not a New Standalone Service’

At the Google Zeitgeist conference, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt said that Google will add social features to the existing services, but it won't launch a standalone product to compete with Facebook. "We're trying to take Google's core products and add a social component. If you think about it, it's obvious. With your permission, knowing more about who your friends are, we can provide more tailored recommendations. Search quality can get better. Everybody has convinced themselves that there's some huge project about to get announced next week. And I can assure you that's not the case," said Eric Schmidt, according to MSNBC.

Schmidt also said that "the best thing that would happen is for Facebook to open up its data. Failing that, there're other ways to get that information." Wall Street Journal speculates that YouTube is one of the services that'll add more social features. For example, you'll be able to see when a video is watched by many of your friends.

More Proofs That Google Me is Near?

Google Me is still just a rumour but the search giant continues to snap up firms that could help power it. It’s already grabbed social app firm Slide, social payments company Jambool and social address book creator Angstro this month. Now it’s completed its August shopping spree by snapping up mobile social app maker Social Deck. It looks like those Google Me plans are starting to take shape…
SocialDeck confirmed that Google has gobbled it up in a blog post last night. It didn’t disclose any details about the deal but Google has confirmed that it bought the firm for its mobile smarts. A spokesperson says: “We’re pleased to welcome them to Google…we think they’ll be great contributors with the Google Waterloo team as we continue to innovate in the mobile space.”
Google Waterloo in Canada is home to some of Google’s mobile search and advertising, Chrome and Chrome OS teams. With a Google Chrome web store in the works, SocialDeck could be very handy: it distributes gaming apps for iPhone, Blackberry and Facebook, flogs virtual goods and enables cross-platform play.

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