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What sort of question is that? Isn’t everyone on Google to a certain extent? However you probably do not believe it is something you join like Facebook or Twitter.

Well that has changed although you may have missed the memo. As MG Siegler has pointed out, Google Profiles Is Taking An Important Social Step With Vanity URLs.

The problem with Google’s movement towards becoming more of a social entity is that it lacks one cohesive place to tie everything together. Google lacks a singular area – like a Facebook profile page – where all that Google knows about you can reside and be easily seen. Actually there is such an area, Google Profiles and Google is now making it quite a bit easier to find.

So are you on Google? You can check this out with the following search for your name on Google Profiles.

If you already have a Google Account and have a Gmail address, then you are well along in joining this new potential social network.

Mike Elgan believes this will be Google’s ‘Facebook Killer’. He feels that Google is just one acquisition away from offering a social network that does everything Facebook does, minus all the things everybody hates about Facebook. That acquisition he is pushing for is that Google should buy Twitter.

The end result of this integration would be a social network far better than Facebook. Rather than being a link dead-end like Facebook, Profiles would be a launching pad of discoverability for everything you want to promote. It would be cleaner, faster and easier to use than Facebook. And it would be a one-stop shop for both social networking and Twitter.

I believe he is over-valuing what Twitter would bring to such an acquisition. Twitter has relatively rudimentary features and undoubtedly the Twitter owners will put far too high a price on their social network. If Google was of a mind to add the social media trappings to Google Profiles, it would not be rocket science to do so. The Google name would ensure people would flock to it. Indeed how many of you reading this have already claimed your Google Profile once you heard about it.

All the concept needs is a little marketing. Google Profiles is clearly a no-no. Thinking over possible names and remembering the precedent of the Google Chrome browser, one name jumps out.

Google Glitter! The name would almost market itself. The related concepts are multitudinous. Status reports would be glints of course. Perhaps if some related helpful ideas come to mind for Google, you could add them in the comments. It undoubtedly would be much cheaper to buy the appropriate domain(s) and/or trademark(s) to allow the concept to shine than it would to buy that tottering whale.

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