Google decides to go social

It looks like Google’s going on a social networking trail.

First came Buzz and then Wave, both of which tried to merge e-mail, instant messaging and social networking. However, neither kicked off as expected and the search engine giant redeemed its efforts to make Google a socially aware service.

Google already owns Orkut, which is very popular in India and Brazil although its not the top favorite in the United States.

On Aug 7, the company purchased Slide, a company that made photo-sharing software for MySpace and other social networking sites.

“Google’s made a lot of money helping people make decisions using search engines, but more and more people are turning to social outlets to make decisions," Charlene Li, founder of the technology research and advisory firm Altimeter Group, said to the New York Times. "And whenever people make decisions, there’s money involved.”

Competition is stiff now as Microsoft has already included a social component in its search engine Bing, which lets people know what their friends liked on Facebook. Moreover, Facebook’s revenue through advertising is increasing by the day and this only implies that Google has to develop solutions that are better than the best we have today.

Vic Gandotra, who is in the Google social networking team, told the NY Times: “Google, as part of our mission to organize the world’s information, also needs to organize and make it very useful for you to see the interactions of your friends, to participate with them and benefit”.

The race is on and I hope Google unveils their social products soon.