Two weeks ago Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, was in the UK visiting media companies and speaking to politicians. At one such meeting, over lunch, he was asked outright if Google was planning to launch its own social network to rival Facebook, niftily called "Google Me".
Schmidt, well-known for being a straight talker, failed to scotch the well-circulated rumour, simply saying he "had nothing to announce". No denial there then.Matt Brittin, Google's UK chief, also had a similar "no comment" response in an interview with The Daily Telegraph last week. He went one step further though, arguing that the global market was big enough for more than one social network.
"Facebook is an absolute phenomenon but there are other social networks which are successful too. We've got Orkut, which is fantastically successful in India and Brazil. And Bebo is successful in other countries," he said. "It's a phenomenon that is with us to stay. I think what we'll see is the internet becoming more of a social place, as well as people being social within the context of social networks." As Brittin suggested, Google Me would not be the first social network attempted by the company. As he said, it already has Orkut, which is very popular in South America and earlier this year it launched the somewhat ill-received Google Buzz.
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