Google Inc is making its boldest move to take on Facebook in the fast-growing social networking market and to maintain its dominance on the Web.
Google, which has been frustrated by a string of failed attempts to crack the social networking market, introduced a full-fledged social network on Tuesday dubbed “Google+.”
It is the company’s biggest foray into social networking since co-founder Larry Page took over as chief executive in April.
Page has made social networking a top priority at the world’s No. 1 Internet search engine, whose position as the main gateway to online information could be at risk as people spend more time on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
“They had the luxury of making mistakes in the past with their social initiatives. They don’t really have that luxury now,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst at research firm Gartner, referring to Google. “Companies that are successful with the social web will get the page views, they’ll get the engagement and they’ll eventually get the advertising dollars that are so important to Google.”
Google+, now available for testing, is structured in a remarkably similar fashion to Facebook, with profile pictures and newsfeeds forming a central core. Enticing consumers to join another social networking service will not be easy, said Rory Maher, an analyst with Hudson Square Research.
“They’re going to have an uphill battle due to Facebook’s network effects,” said Maher, citing the 700 million users that some research firms say are currently on Facebook’s service, but he added that Google’s popularity in Web search and e-mail could help it gain a following.
To set its service apart from Facebook, Google is betting on what it says is a better approach to privacy — a hot-button issue that has burned Facebook, as well as Google, in the past.
Central to Google+ are “circles” of friends and acquaintances. Users can organize contacts into different customized circles — family members, work colleagues, college friends — and share photos, videos or other information only within those groups.
“In the online world there’s this ‘share box’ and you type into it and you have no idea who is going to get that, or where it’s going to land, or how it’s going to embarrass you six months from now,” Google vice president of product management Bradley Horowitz said. “For us, privacy isn’t buried six panels deep.”
Facebook, which has been criticized for its confusing privacy controls, introduced a feature last year that lets users create smaller groups of friends.
Facebook, in an e-mailed statement, said: “We’re in the early days of making the Web more social and there are opportunities for innovation everywhere.”
Google+ started rolling out to a limited number of users on Tuesday in what the company is calling a field trial.
Only those invited to join will initially be able to use the service. Google did not say when it would be more widely available.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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