I really like Google's strategy in doing this. They've been rolling out small social based updates for awhile now across all their various applications. Some examples of how it's evolved for me personally:
- In Google Reader, it used to be just me. Now I share stories with (a small handful of) friends. Now, just a few days ago they added commenting features for that. Soon, it will probably be public sharing/comments.
- In Gmail, it used to be just me. Then they added Google Talk into Gmail and the general routine will be receive email from a contract employer, email back and forth, and then we end up talking in Google Chat. I never have to leave Gmail to do all this.
- With Google Maps, I've created a few maps that I've shared with others. When we were going on a trip to Montreal I made a little map of hot spots we should check out. Then, we just loaded it up on the laptop when we were there and we had our own little guide ready for us.
That's just a few examples, but I think what they are doing is very impressive.
Not to forget sharing google documents and sharing google calendars, both of which I regularly do for work. Oh, and then there's the http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/ api, designed by google as well.
- In Google Reader, it used to be just me. Now I share stories with (a small handful of) friends. Now, just a few days ago they added commenting features for that. Soon, it will probably be public sharing/comments.
- In Gmail, it used to be just me. Then they added Google Talk into Gmail and the general routine will be receive email from a contract employer, email back and forth, and then we end up talking in Google Chat. I never have to leave Gmail to do all this.
- With Google Maps, I've created a few maps that I've shared with others. When we were going on a trip to Montreal I made a little map of hot spots we should check out. Then, we just loaded it up on the laptop when we were there and we had our own little guide ready for us.
That's just a few examples, but I think what they are doing is very impressive.