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How Google Can Make their Services Work Together Better

By Scott M. Stolz

Google has been trying to get into the Social Media space with various products such as Orkut, Google Buzz, Google Friend Connect, Google Wave, Google Profiles as well as adding social media elements to various existing websites, like YouTube & Gmail.  All these initiatives by Google have had various levels of success, but they cannot seem to compete with the juggernaut that is Facebook.

While Google’s relative failure in the social media space has many reasons, one of the biggest reasons is integration, or lack thereof.  Google has some really great teams working to make great products, but because, for the most part, they are all different teams, any integration with other Google services is an often an afterthought and then requires collaboration between the teams that don’t normally work together.

One of the things needed for Google to really succeed in the social media space is to integrate their services together so that it is easier to access your information better, and to give a better user experience.  It also helps promote the other services.  For example, I wonder how many Gmail users actually know what Orkut is.

To accomplish this integration, Google will need to totally rethink their account system and corresponding privacy controls.  I talk about that in another post, but for now I will mention ways that various Google services could be integrated to give a better user experience.

Gmail: The Universal Message System

Gmail & Private Message Systems

Many of Google services like Orkut and YouTube have a private message system.  Instead of sending e-mail reminders to Gmail users, give them the option to have a separate view that shows private messages from Orkut and YouTube, similar to how they integrated Google Buzz. You should be able to reply to the private message directly from Gmail, where it it routed back to the Orkut or YouTube user’s private message inbox.

Gmail & Comment Notifications

A lot of services that Google offers have the ability to comment on things as well as subscribe to future comments.  Examples include Blogger, Google Groups, YouTube, Google Wave, Orkut scraps, Knol, etc.  Like private messages, their should be a separate inbox for comment notifications, and a way to turn off notification e-mails if you have a Gmail account.  That way you don’t clutter up your inbox with comment notifications, and they get routed to a nice separate folder, similar to how Google Buzz posts show separately from E-mails.  Ideally it would include a link and excerpt from the original post, as well as the comment itself.   You should be able to reply to the comment directly in Gmail, or click a link and be taken directly to the comment.

Gmail and Voicemails (Google Voice & Google Talk Voicemails)

This is something that they have started working on, which is good.  You can actually play your Google Voice voicemails directly in Gmail, which is cool.  One thing that would be nicer is if it was automatically routed into its own folder, like Google Buzz is.  I know you can achieve the same effect by using filters, but it would be nice if you could just flick a switch.  People should have the option to auto-archive or have it appear in their Gmail inbox like it does now.  This may be a perfect Gmail Labs add-on.

By the way, the Gmail & Google Voice integration is one of Google’s successes in integration, and could be used as a model for other integrations I mention here.  It would be nice if Google Talk voicemails get integrated the same way Google Voice voicemails are integrated.

Google Buzz & Orkut

My biggest question here is why wasn’t this put in Orkut from the start.  Of course, I know the answer.  Gmail has more active users than Orkut.  While it is innovate to integrate Google Buzz into Gmail, and a really smart move, it makes no sense that this is not in Orkut also.  I might actually start using Orkut if Google Buzz was integrated.  Right now there really is nothing for me to do in Orkut.  Leave scraps?  I’m not even sure what that is supposed to be.  I am guessing posting public notes to each other.  Anyway, back to the integration.  If you want people to use Orkut, Google Buzz needs to be there.

Google Friend Connect & Well, Everything

Google Friend Connect is everything that Facebook Connect is, except no one uses it.  Well, not exactly no one, but relatively speaking, you see a lot more Facebook Connects than Google Friend Connects.  Other than the fact that Google Friend Connect uses your Google Account to login, it really doesn’t appear to integrate with anything else.

Some ideas to integrate Google Friend Connect would be to integrate it with Google Reader and Blogger and Google Blog Search.  In Google Reader, you can show how many Google Friend Connect “Members” there are to a particular website you subscribe to.  You can also do the same in Blogger’s Blogs I Follow section.  And the same for Google Blog Search search results. You can show the total number of members, as well as a “friends in common” feature that shows what friends of yours also like that particular website or blog.

With Blogger, you could even add setup options where it is easy to add Google Friend Connect to your Blogger blog.  A couple clicks and Google Friend Connect is installed on your Blogger blog automagically.  Come to think about it, this might be a nice feature for admins of public Google Sites too.

Then you could easily integrate it with things like Google SideWiki where Google Friend Connect “Members” are shown as well as the comments.

And let’s not forget Google Buzz integration.  When you become a “member” of a website, you should have the option to broadcast that via Google Buzz, similar to how things you “Like” in Facebook appear in the News Feed, depending on your settings.

Tell Us About the Sender in Gmail

Gmail & Google Profiles & Orkut & Google Friend Connect

When you get an e-mail from someone, it tells you who it is from.  Underneath the e-mail itself or in a collapsible section above the e-mail, you could create an optional section that shows various information about the sender.  If they have a public Google Profile, show some information from that.  If the domain name the e-mail is from is the same as the domain name they listed in their public Google Profile, then it’s probably their website, and then you could also display Google Friend Connect “Member” information for that website.  And then let them become “members” if not already a “member.”  You could even show Orkut friends in common, and their Orkut profile, if they have one.  If they have Google Buzz active, you could show how many people follow them and if any friends you know follow them.

This would do several things.  1.) It will tell people more information about the sender, which is especially useful if this person is a business contact or a friend of a friend.  Seeing you have friends in common or have friends who like their website(s) gives the sender credibility they may not otherwise have.  2.) It would promote Google’s other services.  3.) People can control what is in their profile (or whether they have one), and encourage people to fill out their Google Profiles.

Universal Events & Appointments

Orkut Events, Google Calendar & Gmail

When you create an Orkut Event, you should be able to invite friends from Gmail who are not members of Orkut, and the event should appear in your (and your guests) Google Calendar.  Similarly, when you create an event in Google Calendar and you want to invite people, you should be able to invite your Orkut friends directly from Google Calendar. If someone is both an Orkut and a Google Calendar user, the event should appear in both places.

Gmail could have an optional separate section just for Event Invites, similar to how Google Buzz is a separate section.  Users should control whether invites appear in the Gmail inbox or are archived automatically.

Google Docs & Orkut

Be able to share Google Docs with Orkut users, even if you don’t know their e-mail address.  Also, in Orkut, see a list of documents shared with you, which allow you to click on it and go to Google Docs.  This could easily be accomplished using a plugin.

Unified Conversations

Google SideWiki & Blogger

Here’s a novel idea.  If people are commenting on a Blogger blog post in the SideWiki, have those posts appear as comments in the blog itself for non-SideWiki users, and vice versa.  In other words, for blog pages that have the ability to comment, merge the conversations.  It seems redundant to have two conversations about the same page.  Plus Bloggers will love it since more comments will be visible on the blog page itself. You can even mention that the comments came from Google SideWiki for an extra promotion of the SideWiki.

Also, if they are already logged into the SideWiki, they don’t have to login again to Blogger to comment, since they are already logged in.

Bonus:  Do this with WordPress and you will see usage of SideWiki grow tremendously.

What else could they integrate?

There are so many ways they could integrate their services, the possibilities are as endless.  Every time I try to finish this post I come up with another idea.  And I didn’t even mention how Google Buzz could be integrated into Google Talk, or why Google Talk is not integrated into YouTube, or Google Groups or Knol or Blogger similar to how it is integrated into Orkut and Google Wave and Gmail, or how Google Latitude can be integrated with other services, a la Twitter locations.

Until Google works on integrating its services a bit more, it will be hard to unify its following behind any new social media initiative it may come up with.

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