as for google.....i'm not willing to rule them out, but i wouldn't bet on them doing much here. i'm still waiting for buzz/maps/android integration; the fact it hasn't come yet leads me to think google's size is finally starting to catch up with it. but the great promise of whenever google launches one of their bazillion products is that it will have amazing integration with other google apps. crapple gets all the props for great integration, but IMHO google has serious integration game as well. at least for now, though perhaps they are slowing down.....

AtomiCash is the ultimate innovation in Internet marketing as it leverages the entire traffic base of internet users. There is a HUGE, ABSOLUTE MONSTEROUS AND GROWING group of individuals on the Internet who are striving to add income from their blogging, organized business related (social) networking, etc.

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The monetary windfall from search monies is limitless.
The AtomiCash app will also migrate to cell phones allowing access to the local search market for goods and services and will allow all AtomiCash users to be registered for discounts in their local and national markets.

The merchant provider will also pay a marketing or facility fee to AtomiCash for their customer activity allowing the cash disbursements listed above to be made.

Imagine the cash flow due an Rep who is able to set up a popular celebrity site, for example, that would have millions of followers who could benefit from AtomiCash. A singer, through their blog, Internet site, Facebook page or Tweets could earn money from their visitors eating a hamburger at a national chain, when buying a book on line, when getting an insurance policy, from searching goods and services on the Internet, eventually, by doing virtually everything.

Google and Yahoo are working on this.

I guess I have to modify that a bit. I have a gmail account, very nice, very useful, very free. I like it a lot. I was thrown into Buzz because Google felt like BEING EVIL (that seems pretty obvious to me). They knew they couldn't build up competition to Facebook from nothing, so they took a users who expected one kind of social communication, and through everyone into what THEY thought (again THEY thought, the brilliant people that they are) was an alternative to Facebook. That pissed me off so much that I went out of my way to disengage from Buzz, and in fact I use gmail less now than I used to. So I totally deleted my "account" on Buzz, but that's not quite the same as Orkut because I had never CREATED any account on Buzz.

But to disagree with what someone else said, I do not think that Google Wave was ever meant to be a new social platform. It's more of a group-collaboration platform. There is some interesting technology there, although I must admit I haven't used it for much after the first month or two.

I think Google is sadly mistaken if they think they're going to build a 100-million social network around a variety of simple games. Some of those games will just show up on smartphones and iPads, no google necessary. And many of my friends on Facebook are actually infuriated at all the notifications they get from other friends who are playing these simple little games. They may be fun when you're playing, but when you have a few hundred "friends" who are all playing, then your news feed becomes totally useless. I suspect Facebook actually realizes that, and they're trying to come up with a good way to reduce the clutter without losing the games completely. But if Google is going to *start* with games, then there's no reason for me to join it.

Fwiw, I do also have a MySpace account, and in fact I do still login once a week or so. But then the only reason I ever had for that account was for following various music groups, and it continues to do "well enough" for that.

I also have accounts on several other services, most of which I rarely visit. But at least they never irritated me enough that I actively destroyed my account on their system...

Disclaimer: Google has done many great services, so maybe someday they'll also figure out social networking. But I'm not optimistic.

Personally, I think most of this fragmentation is simply the result of company culture. Google's casual, decentralized atmosphere was the big draw for hires when the company first started, but now it's what's holding them back.

When done right, the iterative approach can work: just ask Microsoft. But it's also a double-edged sword. You've got to know what platforms to fold and when.

Sure the Lord GooGul has potential and I use gmail as my preferred email app but that could just be conditioning more than anything else but... I certainly think Google has developed an awesome package in this space with further integrating GoogleDocs and perhaps it's implementation of Wave within those "apps". This so far is it's sweetspot IMO, I think Buzz is a failure and too cloogy in it's UI/UX and to think that Google could ever surpass Facebook in the social space is like saying Twitter could surpass Google in the email, err umm messaging space.. oh wait, that prob could happen hrrm.

Anyway, I still think it would take their special sauce / inclusion of BGraubart's ref of their tech focused DNA but honestly if they want to do that I think they need to focus on what works, what people want and what trends are happening now. Sure thinking out of the box helps but I would look around at what seems to be working already and start there.

We can debate whether it's Google technology-focused DNA, a lack of marketing support or other reasons, but as long as they are pushing out multiple solutions to the same problem, they will not see customer adoption.

I do believe Google will have the power
and the technology to build something as good if not better remember there are 6 million people in the world

Plenty of market share.

It breaks down like this 20%20/10

When somebody searches a word,
signed up for a Opt-in or shops locally
because of the local search,

You download the app. Open the barcode
purchased your product at a special price
because you opted in two revenue share

And it pays out as written above
Money talks even in social networking
especially in today's economic environment.

"Can tiny upstart MySpace dethrone massively successful Friendster as the king of social?"

P.S.

The world isn't flat, it's a sphere! *gasp*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth

"I put the odds of Facebook eventually going the way of Friendster, Myspace and Pointcast Networks at 100 percent. No one stays on top forever. No one."

I mean the idea that no one stays on top forever may be true but I wouldn't be so quick to lump Facebook in with Friendster, Myspace and Pointcast - those networks had nowhere near the amount of integration that Facebook has in our lives today. I used MySpace, I was big into MySpace...but after a few days of not using it, followed by a few months, followed by forever, there was no gaping hole in my life.

Now consider Facebook. Facebook is much more integrated into all the major aspects of my life. It's where I have ALL my pictures, in fact I'll leave my camera at home at times and think "I'll just have a friend tag my in their photos." Facebook is where I get almost all my social event invites. Facebook has not just my friends, but my professional contacts and family - MySpace never had that widespread of adoption. Things happen on Facebook and people expect you to know about them - "Did you hear about so-and-so?" has turned into "Of course you saw the news about so-and-so on Facebook..." And with new integrations with Amazon and others, I just don't see it leaving our lives quite as quietly or easily as MySpace and Friendster did.

Not that it won't leave eventually, just that it won't be easy and it won't be soon.

Mr. Metcalfe is definitely on to something when he says that gaming may not be the right angle to take. There are some inherent limitations to browser-based games, and he's right in saying that the market is small. People who like video games want an immersive experience. From my experience, Facebook games are mostly popular with college students goofing off in class.

I thought the ending quote from Mr. Thurston was very insightful. Even if it isn't Google that takes them down, it's almost certain that Facebook will fail eventually (like many dominant companies have before). When that happens is anyone's guess though.

I've spent a lot of time cultivating my Facebook presence and I'm not just going to drop that.

I don't think launching all the same social games you find on Facebook and elsewhere is going to do the job.

The internet will benefit from a true competitor to Facebook. So come on Google innovate!