Google Planning to Build Facebook Rival

Google is planning to build a social-networking service which could compete with Facebook. The Wall Street Journal reported.

Playdom Inc, Electronic Arts Inc. 's Playfish and Zynga Game Network Inc (company in which Google recently took a financial stake) are the top developers to with whom Google has been in discussions to offer their games on a new service Google building. 

Google's partnership with Zynga was reported earlier by the blog TechCrunch. Zynga is currently the leader in the fast-growing social gaming space with over 230 million monthly active users of its games, which include "FarmVille," "Mafia Wars" and "Treasure Isle."

Facebook growth is potential threat to Google. Over the past year, several former Google executives who ran the company's core advertising business left to work for Facebook. 

Facebook, now with over 500 million users, sells advertising on its own site. But speculation is growing that it could launch an advertising network across other sites, rivaling Google's ad network AdSense.

The Journal said Google's push into social games is an effort to capture users and advertising dollars that are increasingly flowing to social networks like Facebook.


"Google Me" might be Google's new social network.

Google To Cease Nexus One Sales Soon

Google indicated on Friday, July 16, that it has received its last shipment of Nexus One handsets. It will sell through this final bit of inventory, and then will close up shop. The company said in a blog post, "Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google. Customer support will still be available for current Nexus One customers. And Nexus One will continue to be sold by partners including Vodafone in Europe, KT in Korea, and possibly others based on local market conditions."

How did Google get to this spot?

Google's little experiment to sell Android handsets online directly to consumers was a failure from the start. It just didn't work. With partners Verizon Wireless and Sprint throwing in the towel on the Nexus One completely before the device even launched for their respective networks, there was little reason for Google to keep the store open.

Google's Andy Rubin said in May, "As with every innovation, some parts worked better than others. While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from."

Google made the right call with this decision. It is one thing to sell a device online that customers at least have the opportunity to see in real life somewhere else (such as a store). But when consumers can't put their hands directly on the thing that they are going to buy, things get tricky.

Phones are extremely personal devices. I would never recommend that anyone buy a mobile phone sight unseen. It's just not a good idea. Why? It's something you spend hours with each day. It has to be good, it has to be what you want.

When Google first announced that the Nexus One online store was going to be shuttered, it said that the device would eventually be available from brick-and-mortar retailers. To-date, however, the big national retailers (such as Best Buy, RadioShack, etc.) have remained mum on the Android handset's availability. Google's latest word on the subject only implies availability in Europe, though developers will always have access to the Nexus One through the Android developer program.

Despite the failure of its online sales model, Google has maintained that the Nexus One was a profitable business.
 
Source: Informationweek
By Eric Zeman

Google to Push Android OS in India and China

Do not even think that Android-based smartphones have always been expensive mobile devices. As a matter of fact, your notions can be changed. It turns out that Google is going to push the Android OS on low-cost mobile devices in the markets of China and India. 
 

Vice president of Engineering at Google, Andy Rubin revealed in his recent interview that the down-market opportunity can happen. It can be regarded as a revolution. In order to reach this dream, Google facilitates the way for app developers to accept payments from apps and offer subscriptions so as to make more money from Android. Such handset manufacturers as LG and Huawei are planning to take advantage of the Android OS.

Actually, such a move comes after it was revealed that Android is ready to pip iOS of Apple sometime in 2012 in order to become the second most popular mobile operating system in the world being behind Symbin OS of Nokia.

Source:  Freshnews.in