Can Google Provide the Next Wave of Social Media?

Although Facebook set the platform for social media, and has adopted a home page fit for minute by minute updates of others acitivities largely copied on Twitter, the latter does not only makes it easier to keep up with social activity but has become a source of information that is without a doubt the most up to date, even though it may not always be the most accurate. With mobile internet connection as good as it is these days, Twitter has become the prime example of  real-time web and is known as the ‘SMS of the internet’.  Cultural institutions are constantly updating their pages to keep their fans up to date with events and information as to keep it strictly museumswise the recent success of Jim Richardson's ranking of museums on Twitter shows.

With more and more people seeking basic information on Twitter, Google has felt the need to up their game by promising the launch, at the end of the year, of their new application “Google Wave”. Although the project is still in development, some 100,000 people will have the opportunity to try out the application from 30th September. You may at this point be asking yourself, ‘What on earth is a Wave?’.  “Waves” are conversation windows, similar to a Facebook message in that you can add photos and links, but real-time in a Facebook chat window sense.  One can add or remove as many people to the conversation with one click, and if you have missed any previous posts, or “blips”, you can play back the history in the precise order each ‘blip’ was posted. With an application named Twave, which unsurprisingly allows people to tweet from the same platform, as well as many other applications such as automated spelling and grammar check, instant automated translation of text and the ability to add documents into conversations with contacts, Google Wave looks like a compilation of Facebook, Twitter and Google. But will Google Wave overtake its competitors?           

Many factors come into the equation. Firstly, do we feel loyal to certain social networks once we have signed up to them and therefore are we unwilling to change? Geographically we are living in a galaxy of social networks worldwide as no one single network has dominance. We can’t help but wonder if Google Wave ultimatey tends to create a uniform landscape instead of a somewhat messy one and combine the social and professional means that would make social networkers’ lives a lot easier. One thing that Google has in its armoury is the fact that they have, in one way or another, done pretty much everyone a favour, whether with their search engine, their mail services or with Google Chrome.

Other than the fact that obviously a lot of people will inevitably sign up to Google Wave, why will Museums and other cultural institutions want to sign up for marketing purposes? In recent discussions between my blogging colleague Claire and French museums' webmasters, the question was raised of the relevance of setting up a social media platform devoted to art, such as ArtBabble, as opposed to using the social network mess as a strategy. Is such a format relevant for what museums are looking for in a marketing strategy?  With a decent number of followers they could easily start Waves publicising exhibitions to all their followers; and the one advantage I see is the use of the translator which means everyone would be able to understand any publications, though approximately... If Google Wave is a roaring success, will corporations feel obliged to follow suit and switch from Twitter or Facebook?

I don’t personnally think many corporations or institutions will see the harm in signing up to Google Wave as it can hardly do their profile any damage: the ability to include documents within a Wave could prove beneficial, as putting yourself on every single map is logically the way to make sure you don’t miss out anyone. But back in 2006 I was more than reluctant to leave my Bebo account and switch to Facebook when all my friends were signing up; it was like having my favourite teddy bear taken away from me all over again!  I only did it because all my friends were moving across and I was reluctantly moving with the times, something people still fail to cope with when a new layout for Facebook is announced every so often.

There will probably never be one single social network of the world, but what bigger internet corporation could have a stab at turning our attentions towards one single social networking tool than the mother of all search engines! I’m compelled to find out how Google Wave fares, but only time will tell at the end of the day! What do you think? The floor is all yours to discuss.

Comments

[twitter.com/samuelbausson]

avec ses fonctionnalités de type twitter + wiki, je vois bien un usage autours des conférences du musée, histoire de préparer, d'échanger et de construire une base de connaissances à plusieurs avec les participants sur place et les internautes