We recently discussed the expiration of the Twitter-Google deal for real-time search. My own early speculation said that this was a bad sign for partnerships in the future, likely attached to Google’s own social network hitting the web. Dialogue on the topic has continued, and one contributor was Eric Schmidt, who discussed the expiration of the Twitter deal, how Google+ plays into these partnerships, the possibility of social networks co-existing, and partnerships with Twitter and Facebook.
First, Schmidt clarified that Twitter and Google had discussed renewing their partnership for real-time search, but after “a substantive and lengthy discussion” the companies simply couldn’t come to terms both agreed on. Similar negotiations were attempted with Facebook, especially when it came to allowing Google+ users to import their Facebook friends to the new social network. However, as reported by Reuters, those discussions “also went nowhere.”
While Schmidt didn’t discuss the motivations of Facebook and Twitter, he did clarify that he believes the different social sites can co-exist on the web. Schmidt said that Google would “love to have deeper integration with Twitter and Facebook,” and that he didn’t believe the networks needed to be enemies.
Discussing Google+ itself, Schmidt declined to comment extensively, saying instead that it was too early to give any real analysis of the fledgling social network. However, he did state that online chat was very popular, especially among younger users. This innovative feature, known as Google Hangouts, wasn’t unique to the service for long, though. Within weeks of the Google+ announcement, Facebook announced their own video chat service, which was made possible by a partnership with Skype. Regardless of how Eric Schmidt or people at Google see it, it certainly seems that Facebook views Google+ as the competition.
[Sources include: Reuters]
