i have an idea for a new google product. this is a bit lengthy but its a letter i would like to send to google to get it going. tell me what you guys think and give me some ideas to add to it.
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I have a suggestion for a new "product" for Google. It would most definitely increase users and be quite helpful at the same time.
Ok, almost everyone in the world has a myspace or some equivalent. I think that it is time for Google to do it properly, because quite frankly all the other "social pages" do it wrong. They are all based around meeting people, but i think the central purpose of it should be more like a home on the web. Every person's own "homepage" if you will. It would still have a friends list and a comment form and all of that fun stuff, but it would be more based around how people get in contact with you. I know for me, and I'm sure I am not the only one, I don't use pages like myspace to "meet" people, its more of a way to keep in contact with people. Of course, I am fully aware that Google owns Orkut now, but that can just be a starting point for this project, because starting from the ground up with this project it could do it so much better.
Here are some of my ideas:
First thing first, starting with a blank profile, everyone needs a way to contact other people, well there are two choices for this, one being, click the send a message button which uses gmail, or two, if the recipient is online (seen with quick contact list – i.e. gmail), then a instant message can be sent. Of course both would be stored as gmail currently stores them. Next everyone needs to have pics of themselves, so for this I suggest using picasaweb. have a 'more pictures' link which would direct to the user's picasaweb page.
Now, everyone is going to want to be able to customize their own pages, otherwise this will never take off, so for that I suggest that you take an approach similar to what you did with personalized homepage. have all of these features that i mention as modules, to be dragged and dropped in any location. Also there should be the ability to have a blank one for whatever you want to do. (like "i like this and that" and "i hate this and that.") It should also rely on CSS, so users could completely modify the look. There should just be one or two mandatory modules to have (i.e. a google search bar and an ad of the user's choice, kind of like in ad sense as far as tower ad or a horizontal bar or vertical etc).
Ok, next on the agenda, everyone wants to be able to see their friends, therefore you would need some sort of list of them, so what I was thinking was something similar to the quick contacts page, but it would have a thumbnail image for each person along with it, and it would be a full page. there will have to be an add a friend button and all of that jazz as well, but that's all similar to the contact list within gmail that is existing.
Now, some other features you can add into this would be google video. People can share their uploaded videos with anyone and everyone. Google Bookmarks could be used the same way. Everybody could sign up for a blogger acct to have a blog (it would be inside of a "module" so the profile wouldn't have to be left to read it.) and users would have Google Reader on the page that are directed to once signed in, so therefore they can keep up on their friends blogs. You could also integrate Google Pages into it as well for less html savvy users to create a nice profile. Or just use the model for Google Pages as a model for the profile builder that everyone would use. Everyone should be able to have a Froogle module, kind of like a 'Wish List' or whatever. Users should be able to link to Groups that they have created, possibly even use a group as a comment form, so user's friends could leave them comments. Of course there should be a link to Google Maps on the location of the user. There should be one module that is for music, and as band names are input into it it would link them directly to the google music pages. Of course, Google Calendar would have to be implemented. Have options within where friends are automatically allowed to add stuff or not, or only certain friends, etc. Ok, now here's a wishful one, when, if ever, Gdrive comes out users should be able to show the shareable contents of their drive on their profile, for all to see/download/whatever. (keeping my fingers crossed for that one)
Ok now that was a lot of features, but hey you guys are Google after all. I think that this would be a really good way to tie in all the google products (even ones that I have left out, such as google finance, could be on the users login page) in together. I think that is what a lot of people are waiting for, because I know I personally use probably 10 – 20 different products of yours, and they don't really sync up well together, but this could join them all together into one. I also think that everything should be optional, for example, a user doesn't want pics up, then no link to picasaweb, and if a person doesn't want people seeing his or her videos, then no video module. (minus the mandatory ad and search box). Oh, and the log in screen to this product could take over what personlized homepage does, because theoretically it would have all of the info that you wanted to see when you logged in anyway.
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if i succeeding in confusing all of you. sorry.
let me know and i'll try to further explain it..
let me know what you guys think... |
you mean, all (or many) google service in one (community portal)? |
pretty much. it would be an amazing thing to do all things google at once.
and i like that name google fusion... |
