It is only recently, I think, when Google started playing with the idea of monopoly. It owns tons of data, more than facebook, more than IMF or WHO or anyone who has their business model based on data. Having been at the helm of user-data for years now, it shouldn't be surprising if Google spawns a range of products that finally put this massive user-specific data to use.
So far, the results have been disappointing. Google buzz went nowhere. Google trends is practically unusable. Google new is still in its infancy (customizing news couldn't be that hard). Google+ probably has some capability to compete with facebook, but it still can't be the same. Facebook captures the spirit of college life and in a lot of ways keeps you tied to the college behavior - wild partying, exhibitionism, social gossip and spirited volunteerism. Google would have a tough time tapping into that market. People might like voice and video and wide range of selections Google servers fetch for you in fraction of a second, but a "Like" button is not something computer scientists can come up by themselves.
I am curious what happens next but I am somewhat disappointed that Google is more interested in providing more content than actually improving the content itself. The what do you love feature, seems another attempt to provide a new "product" based on data. Absolutely nothing seems to have changed for the search content itself. In first tests, I don't see any intelligence that is being used.
