Google has been in the news lately regarding building/buying a social network. Much of the talks started because Microsoft is buying 5% of Facebook [Microsoft + Facebook = Trouble for Google]. Google is not in trouble - Google has the opportunity to build a useful social platform with the resources they already have: Google Reader, Shared Stuff, and Google News.
There has been quite a bit of discussion around Google Reader to allow for comments in shared items. I am all for these comments. Me & my friends share interesting news on a daily basis, but then have to hope we are both online to chat in GTalk in order to discuss anything about that shared item.
My proposal:
Add comments to the bottom of every post. Allow anybody using reader to post/read comments. There is where the social aspect comes into play: comments from every Reader user on their shared posts - a possible Digg killer? Not likely, but close. Add the functionality from the newly released Shared Stuff that would let you share more than just the links that come through your feed reader and you’re golden.
Social Networks are damn near required to have some sort of “friend list” these days, so I wouldn’t mind Google Reader to have something similar implemented. This list would simply show me my friends shared items, and much like Digg shows items that Friends dugg - GOOG could also show me on my main page what friends shared. I would also like my friends comments on shared items to stand out from the rest of the crowd - maybe a light grey background on their posts or something. It would be beautiful.
