June 28, 2010, 11:09 AM — Digg founder Kevin Rose posted a tweet over the weekend saying: "Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon "Google Me", very credible source."
I'm not sure what the function of typing "umm" into a tweet is, but if true this rumor could prove, umm, earth-shaking.
Or not.
After all, Google has offered the Orkut social network for years, and it's been a relative failure for everyone except the Brazilians, who seem to love it.
Google Buzz, more of a Twitter than a Facebook, hasn't taken over the universe. And Google Profiles, which could have been a Facebook killer, umm, didn't kill anything.
One bit of speculation is that all will be combined -- Orkut, Buzz and Profiles -- into a super social network called "Google Me" (not to be confused with the documentary of the same name). Another rumor says just Google Profiles will be supersized into a Facebook-like service.
If Google Me launched this year, the timing might prove advantageous for Google. Facebook is suffering bad PR from a recent privacy flap.
And a new blockbuster movie called, "The Social Network," which slams Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, should hit Facebook's public image even further.
However, the problem is that people are already invested in Facebook -- 500 million people. If Google could figure out how to make "Google Me" -- assuming its real -- more private but also interoperable to some degree, umm, now that could be quite a threat to Facebook.
