Google launched its own social networking contender recently. While it is officially still in a closed “field test”, thousands of Google users are already on the platform, and among tech circles, Google+ is already the next big thing. 
That is surprising, considering Google’s relatively meager track record in the field. It has abandoned Jaiku, which was like Twitter. It has never tried to upgrade and spread Orkut, which used to be more popular than Facebook in countries like Brazil and India, it had to abandon Wave as a social collaboration tool, and Buzz never really took off as a social sharing mechanism. While many of Google’s services have a strong social component, it has been unable to intertwine them and turn them into a unified social platform. Enter Google+, which along with a visual interface refresh across the company’s services, tries to bring together existing ones, the recently launched +1 button, as well as ideas from Orkut, Diaspora and – Skype.
The platform is clearly over-hyped, and in a way too early stage to seriously judge its qualities and potentials. It will take many months until it enters a stage where it can reach Facebook’s usability in terms of features and fine tuning. However, I am already convinced that they managed to “kill” Facebook and Skype with one strike, and possibly a few other competitors as well. Here is why….