Google Unveils Facebook Rival
(Wall Street Journal) — Google Inc. launched its most ambitious social-networking effort yet, broadening a battle with Facebook Inc. to grab the attention of Web users and future advertising dollars. The new service, a top priority for new Google Chief Executive Larry Page, is aimed at exploiting what has been considered a weakness of Facebook—that by default people using Facebook share all their information with a big group of friends. The new Google social network, called Google+, was released Tuesday in a “field trial period,” meaning it is an invitation-only product and will be available more broadly later. The effort to create what became Google+ started in earnest in February 2010 after the Google social-networking service Google Buzz flopped with users, largely due to a backlash after it inadvertently made the email address books of users visible to other people.
