CALIFORNIA – Online search giant Google have launched a new social network that it believes will “totally change the way we think about invading your privacy.”
Already a leader in the search space, the company now expects to know every thing about it’s users that it didn’t already know, “and then some.”
“Online privacy violations needed a serious re-think, so it’s time we get started,” said Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google.
‘All your data are belong to us’
In April, Google were forced to backtrack on the rollout of it’s previous social networking effort Google Buzz, after fears it wasn’t exposing enough user information.
Gundotra continued: “Buzz was a good start but we felt we could get more information from the people that use Google services, so we went back to the drawing board and really thought about innovative ways to get users to reveal their most intimate secrets.”
“With Plus, we’ll know who you are, what you like, what you’re thinking, who you talk to, where they are, where you are, where you’re going, what you’re thinking right now and what you will be thinking next Wednesday at half eight. The list is endless.”
The executive was confident it could now challenge Facebook or at least give users options in choosing who steals their personal information.
However, analysts reception has been muted on what is believed to be a big mountain to climb when it came to converting people already comfortable with having their data stolen by Facebook.
“Asking people to create another backdoor to compromise details about their private lives will be a challenge,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst with research firm eMarketer.
“Google will need to come up with a more interesting way to compromise privacy if it wants people to seriously consider switching.”
Socially challenged
Technology blogger Robert Scoble echoed this sentiment, saying that Google+ was not doing anything new in the field of circumventing the implied trust of it’s user base.
“What they really need is new ways for people to unwittingly give up the personal information they haven’t already given to other social networks, like…err…umm…well I’m sure they can think of something. They’re the smart ones.”
Although no official statement has been issued, Facebook is expected to make an announcement that it will soon begin looking through users’ trash in a bid to maintain it’s position as number one privacy violator.
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