Facebook killer ‘Google Me’ confirmed by ex-CTO

D'Angelo's confirmation that Google Me is a "real project" and "not a rumor" comes after Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeted that a "very credible source" had revealed that Google was going to "launch facebook [sic] competitor very soon" called "Google Me."

In the blog post on Quora, a Q&A website, D'Angelo lists what he has "pieced together from some reliable sources”. They have been republished below:

• This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.
• They realized that Buzz wasn't enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.
• Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.
• They had assumed that Facebook's growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn't be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn't stop, and now they are really scared.

Some have speculated that Google's Facebook rival could be an integration of Google's existing social networking services, Buzz and Orkut.

However, Inside Facebook notes that if Google is indeed "modeling it off of Facebook," this "likely means creating a similar user interface, features like the news feed and personal profiles, if not data polices, developer platform, core applications and other important parts of Facebook today."

Google has already waded into the social networking market, once with Orkut and again with Google Buzz, along with Google Wave, an online communication and collaboration tool that arguably replicates some of what Facebook does.

If the rumours are ture, the new ‘Google me’ servicde would have its wqork cut out if it wants to overtake Facebook as the social media platform of choice.

Facebook currently has more than 450 million users and expects to pass 500 shortly. According to market-research firm Hitwise, social networking sites garner increasingly more visits than search engines today. In May, 14.5% of all website traffic was to social networking sites and forums, while search engines accounted for slightly more than 10%.