Google quietly launched another social network

[Chris Smith]

• Google just launched a new social network project that seems to draw inspiration from the popular Pinterest.
• Google Keen is a service that lets people save items related to their interests, share their keens, and explore the board of other people.
• The service uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify content that matches your interests. Therefore, Google could use Keen to collect more user data for its ads business.

As big as Google has gotten over the years, the company has never been able to come up with a social network offering of its own that would keep users interested. Not every tech company has to create a social network to stay alive, but Google’s is certainly the kind of company that would benefit from one. That’s because of the way Google makes its money. It’s advertising that brings in most of the cash each quarter, and the better-tailored ads Google servers, the higher its earnings will be. That’s why Google collects all that data about you with the help of all its free apps, many of which are must-haves on mobile and desktop. The privacy trade-off should be clear to anyone if it’s not already: you get a bunch of great apps that you can use for free as long as you’re okay with Google collecting data about your interest to serve up better ads. There’s nothing wrong with that line of business, and many people have no problem with that transaction. Not to mention that Google has been improving its privacy policies in recent years. But a successful social network could really help Google collect even more relevant data about your likes and interests and turn it into pertinent ads. That’s where Keen might help, assuming this Pinterest-lookalike ever takes off.

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Google quietly launched another social network originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 at 06:50:22 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Via BRG - Boy Genius Report