When Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeted about the existence of "Google Me," Google's supposed "Facebook killer" social-networking site, I'd love to know whether he expected Facebook's former-CTO to jump into the fray and confirm it, saying it's a "real project."
Adam D'Angelo, who has since left Facebook to found Quora, wrote on his Q&A site that that not only is it "not a rumor," that there are many people working on the project at Google, adding he is "completely confident about this."
But what about Buzz, Google's attempt last year to coin their own Facebook rival? According to D'Angelo, "they realized that Buzz wasn't enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook."
It's possible that D'Angelo holds somewhat of a grudge against Google, and is weighing in with a healthy dose of bullshit, but it's unlikely he'd be willing to strap his name—and new company, Quora—to inaccurate claims.
Going on, he also wrote that—
* Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.
* They had assumed that Facebook's growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn't be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn't stop, and now they are really scared.
As you've probably read, heard or even seen, there's been a growing backlash against Facebook for some time now, with the recent security issues being the catalyst for many to close down their accounts. While I think a lot of it is just pandering to be seen as more intellectual and "switched on," there are some serious problems with Facebook that do need addressing.
If one company can do that, it's Google—though as TechCrunch points out, they didn't exactly succeed with Buzz, Wave and even Orkut. [Quora via TechCrunch]