Google Circles 'to launch in May': Could Facebook have met its match?

Google Circles 'to launch in May': Could Facebook have met its match?

Google will launch its own social network in May, it has been claimed.

The search engine giant will unveil Google Circles at its Google I/O conference in San Francisco, according to technology blog The Next Web.

It is thought the network will allow users to selectively share content with people who are members of different social circles in their lives.

Plans: Google will launch its own social network, Google Circles, in May, it has been claimed

Users will be able to filter what content is shown to which group.

Reports that Google Circles is to launch at the South by Southwest technology event, currently taking place in Austin, Texas, were yesterday denied by Google.

The company also refused to confirm or deny any plans for a social network.

 

 

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A spokesman said: 'We do not comment on rumour and speculation.'

Some industry analysts believe it is unlikely that Google would put itself directly in competition with Facebook.

'Whatever Google comes up with, it almost certainly won't be a competitive social network that mimics Facebook,' Matt Rosoff wrote on SFGate.com.

'That ship has sailed - Facebook has 600million users, and nobody's going to join yet another social network to share photos and status updates with friends.'

Third time lucky? Just days after unveiling Google Buzz in February 2010, the company received a deluge of complaints

Google has tried to ride the social networking wave twice before, the last time proving a public relations disaster.

Just days after unveiling Google Buzz in February 2010, the company was forced to announce a massive overhaul after receiving a deluge of complaints.

The new media tool allows users to share messages, web links, photos and videos with friends and colleagues directly within Gmail.

However, when it launched it automatically linked users with other people they were judged to contact the most.

In their eagerness to kick-start the project, Google failed to recognise many users would resent being 'followed' by others without their agreement.

Google integrated Buzz directly into Gmail in an attempt to tap into its then-existing pool of 176million users and to quickly challenge Facebook.

Following the criticism, they created a new tab within Gmail will make it easier to opt out of Buzz altogether and apologised to its users.

In 2004, Google launched the Orkut social network. But while Orkut is big in certain overseas markets like Brazil, it failed to attract users in the UK and U.S.