通过收购、投资和内部开发，谷歌(Google)正在逐项拼凑建立强大社交网络基础架构所需的各项要素，目标直指已迅速成为互联网最强大势力之一的Facebook。
但在谷歌着手发动这一大规模攻势之际，Facebook也密切关注着谷歌的举动并准备着一场战斗，而这场战斗将决定正变得更为"社交化"的互联网的格局。
Forrester Research分析师奥吉•雷(Augie Ray)表示："未来几个月，我们将看到谷歌在社交网站发展方面做出更有聚合力的、更自信和更明智的努力。而这可能真的会对Facebook造成一定的威胁。"
这场对决最明显的证据是谷歌突然到处砸钱。上周五，谷歌收购了Jambool——该公司为社交游戏提供虚拟货币体系，其中包括在Facebook上玩的游戏。本月，谷歌还支付约2亿美元收购了Facebook应用软件的一个主要开发商Slide，同时收获了大量才华横溢的工程师。而就在此前不久，谷歌还向最大社交游戏开发商Zynga投资了1亿美元。
据一位熟悉Facebook的高管表示："他们自主创新失败了，所以现在在到处砸钱。"
这些举动标志着谷歌的战略转变。谷歌之前曾推出过社交服务Buzz，试图利用大约2亿Gmail服务用户构建一个社交网络。这一努力彻底失败了，除了用户在隐私方面的担心外，部分原因还在于Buzz功能有限，没有社交游戏或应用软件。一旦人们在Buzz上找到好友后，就再没有什么可做了。如今，谷歌不再考虑从零开始建立一个社交平台，而是打算构建一个社交游戏和应用软件终端，希望社交网络能凝聚在这个终端周围。
行业资深人士表示，在谷歌发动新的社交攻势之际，这项战略应该能给谷歌带来获胜的机会。谷歌的新社交网络可能被称作Google Me。
为谷歌和Facebook提供咨询服务的天使投资人罗恩•康韦(Ron Conway)表示："他们不是在买市场占有率，而是在买心理占有率。他们是在购买社交网络领域一些最伟大的头脑。"
除了谷歌内部的人士，谁也不知道Google Me究竟会以何种面目出现，而谷歌暗示，它不会复制Facebook。最近，当《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)问到谷歌是否会建立一个Facebook的竞争对手时，谷歌首席执行官埃里克•施密特(Eric Schmidt)表示："这个世界不需要山寨产品。"
但主要框架正在逐渐清晰起来，而且很显然，即使Google Me和Facebook不尽相同，恐怕也会很相似。熟悉谷歌计划的人士表示，谷歌的社交网络攻势可能包括两个因素——基于某种平台的应用软件和社交游戏套件。
在谷歌内部，该项目占用了公司的全部资源。除了投入5亿美元进行收购外，谷歌还动用了顶尖人才。
来自多方面的消息显示，谷歌工程副总裁维克•贡多特拉(Vic Gundotra)将负责Google Me的运营。贡多特拉已经证明自己是个令人敬畏的敌手。在接受这项任命之前，他一直在负责谷歌的手机操作系统Android。上周，该系统超越苹果(Apple)的iPhone，成为美国智能手机市场的领导者。
谷歌还有另一个武器可用——它在搜索市场的主导优势。与Facebook关系密切的人士担心，在谷歌进行人物搜索时，他们的Google Me简介会排在其它搜索结果（包括Facebook上的资料）之前。
"真正让人担心的是，无论他们在社交领域做什么，都会充分利用在搜索市场上的优势，"一位与Facebook关系密切的人士表示。"在财经、视频和地图方面他们已经这么做了。"
尽管谷歌实力雄厚，但它面对的是一个高度稳固的网络。Facebook拥有5亿用户，而且还在继续增加，是互联网上最大的社交网络。
而感觉到谷歌威胁的Facebook正在加强防备。近几周，该网站更新升级了诸多核心组件，包括相册和news feed的发布。
"无论是谷歌还是其它任何公司，若试图创造一个与Facebook直接竞争的产品，都将面临重大挑战，"Inside Network的创始人贾斯廷•史密斯(Justin Smith)表示。"因为转换成本很高，特别是如果你已经建立了一个数百名好友的网络，并建立了生活和相片档案。"Inside Network是一家监控社交网站的公司。
互联网广告业的未来同样面临威胁。在这个领域，谷歌依然是无可争议的领军企业，占据了绝大部分搜索广告市场，去年的收入达235亿美元。但Facebook紧追不舍。虽然刚刚成立6年，但由于用户基础庞大，广告具有高度针对性，预计今年Facebook将获得10亿至20亿美元的广告收入。
多年来，两家公司一直在争夺人才，用特殊待遇和股票期权吸引顶尖工程师。但竞争的加剧已将两者间的博弈提升到全新水平。
据知情人士透露，最近，谷歌为了阻止印度公司的两名高管转投Facebook麾下，开出了30倍于他们之前薪酬的条件。
但这还是没有用。两名高管拒绝了谷歌，将自己的未来寄托在了Facebook身上。
译者/何黎
Through acquisitions, investments and internal development, Google is piecing together the makings of a potent
social networking infrastructure, one explicitly designed to challenge Facebook,
which has quickly emerged as one of the most potent forces on the web.
But as Google gears up for this big push, Facebook is keenly watching
Google's moves, and is bracing itself for a battle that will shape a more social
phase of the internet.
"We are going to see a more cohesive, confident and sensible social push from
Google in the coming months," said Augie Ray, analyst with Forrester Research.
"And it comes at a time where there could really be some risk to Facebook."
The most visible evidence of this fight is Google's sudden shopping spree. On
Friday it bought Jambool, a company that runs virtual currency systems for
social games, including those played on Facebook. This month Google paid about
$200m for Slide, a major developer of Facebook applications with a wealth of
talented engineers. And shortly before that it invested $100m in Zynga, the
largest maker of social games.
"They failed to innovate on their own so now they're throwing their
chequebook at it," said a senior executive close to Facebook.
These moves signal a strategic shift for Google. Its previous social
networking effort, Buzz, tried to summon a social network from the roughly 200m
people who use its Gmail service. That effort flopped, partly due to privacy
concerns, but also because Buzz had limited features, and no social games or
applications. Once people found their friends on Buzz, there was little else to
do. Now, rather than try to build a social platform from scratch, Google looks
to be building a destination for social games and applications, and hoping the
social network will coalesce around it.
Industry veterans say this strategy should give Google a fighting chance when
it launches its new social push, which is likely to be called Google Me.
"They're not buying market share, they're buying mind share," said Ron
Conway, an angel investor who has advised both Google and Facebook. "They're
buying some of the great minds in social networking."
No one outside Google knows exactly what Google Me will look like, and the
company has suggested it is not out to duplicate Facebook. Recently questioned
by the Wall Street Journal over whether Google was creating a Facebook rival,
Eric Schmidt, chief executive said: "The world doesn't need a copy of the same
thing."
But the broad strokes are coming into focus, and it is clear that if Google
Me is not exactly the same thing as Facebook, it is suspiciously similar. People
familiar with the plans say that Google's social push is likely to include two
elements – a suite of applications and games, based on some sort of platform.
Within Google, the project is commanding the company's full resources.
Besides spending nearly $500m on acquisitions, Google is putting its top talent
on the case.
Vic Gundotra, Google's vice-president of engineering, is running Google Me,
according to multiple sources. Mr Gundotra already has proved himself a
formidable adversary. Until this reassignment, he was overseeing Android,
Google's mobile phone operating system that last week overtook Apple's iPhone as the market leader in US smartphones.
And there is another weapon Google might wield – its dominance in the search
market. People close to Facebook are concerned that a search for a person in
Google could deliver their Google Me profile ahead of other results, including
their Facebook profile.
"The real worry is that they will leverage their position in the search
market for whatever they do in social," said one person close to Facebook. "They
already did it in finance and video and maps."
For all Google's muscle, it faces a deeply entrenched network. With 500m
members and counting, Facebook is the largest social network on the web.
And Facebook, sensing the threat from Google, is bracing itself. In recent
weeks the site has refreshed core features on the site including photo albums
and posting to the news feed.
"There are substantial challenges for Google, or anyone, trying to create a
product to compete directly with Facebook," said Justin Smith, founder of Inside
Network, which monitors social networking sites. "The switching costs are very
high, especially when you've built up a network of hundreds of friends and made
an archive of your life and photos."
At stake is nothing less than the future of advertising on the internet.
Google still is the undisputed champion of this field, serving up the vast
majority of search advertising and hauling in $23.5bn last year. But Facebook is
hot on its tail. Just six years old, Facebook is expected to make between $1bn
and $2bn this year, thanks to its vast user base and its highly-targeted ads.
For years, the two companies have competed for talent, luring top engineers
with perks and stock options. But the heightened competition has taken this
jockeying to new levels.
Google recently tried to keep two executives in India from joining Facebook
by offering them 30 times their previous remuneration, according to a person
familiar with the situation.
The offer didn't work. The executives turned down Google, instead entrusting
their future to Facebook.
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