So Larry has decided that the future of Google is most definitely in social, however I fear once again that the technically obsessed corporation that is Google have completely missed the point by promoting an engineer to SVP of Social.
This relentless desire to attack ‘problems’ and solve them with absolute logistical precision may have been ideal in the search game, but this is social media where SERENDIPITY RULES! Google are not alone though, as many others seek to eliminate the so called ‘noise’ of social.
Google’s previous attempts – Wave and Buzz – whilst being technically astounding, were bloated and overly complicated. In those instances Google lost sight of what made it’s search business great… a single minded focus. Google SHOULD be able to own the social space, it has all the right pedigree, and when it acts on impulse it can create truly wonderful things.
My message to Larry, and everyone who seeks to succeed at the social game, is that your knowledge has made you cynical, your cleverness hard and unkind. You think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die liberty will never perish… Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.
You the people have the power, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.
Readers – in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
And for a simple lesson in social media, look no further than Matt Harding!