In this article, we are going to discuss Google's new social network called Keen ( Both web and Android app).
Google's new social network: Keen
Google's internal incubator ( Area 120 team) is known to create an experimental app and services. This team has launched "Keen" that is thought to be Pinterest rival.
Users can join Keen to place, store and share curated information on any topic but Keen users can generate "Keens " instead of having board as of Pinterest. You can be able to collect your favourite pictures or articles from the web in one place. You can keep your Keens public or private as per your wish.
Co-founder of Keen, CJ Adams said that Keen is a new social media platform that helps users to find relevant content and add to their Keens.
He said," We use Google Search and the latest in machine learning to remain on the lookout for helpful content related to your interests". He added, " The more you save a keen and organize it, the better the recommendations become and Keen aims to be alternative to " mindlessly" browsing online feeds.
This is not Google's first attempt to get social media attention however, its journey hasn't gone over so well. For example, Google Video was an attempt to compete with YouTube but failed. There are other services like Google Wave, Google Buzz, Jaiku and Google+ that didn't go so well.
Keen cannot be viewed particularly as revelatory pitch as it is trying to imitate Pinterest.
Now, let's have a look at what Keen has that Pinterest doesn’t and make it unique.
Pinterest Vs Keen
Keen is Google product with powerful machine learning features. Adams, expertise in machine learning says that Keen will be able to find helpful content related to your interests.
Adams says, " Even if you're not an expert on a topic, you can start curating a Keen and save a few interesting ' gems' or links that you find helpful and these bits of content act like seeds and help Keen discover more and more related content over time".
Keen works through Google's AI and search engine technology, unlike Pinterest. The site automatically asks you to make some search prompts so that it can bring you more and more relevant content over time. It can recommend content from YouTube and Wikipedia for a bunch of relevant information.
Why is Google interested in developing Pinterest like app?
Pinterest was simply Pin-board style platform going back to early days. Google didn't really care about the features it offered and wasn't interested. But over time Pinterest morphed into visual discovery and increased focus on eCommerce.
Pinterest now has over 367 million monthly active users while Google has 2 billion monthly active users for G Suite alone. But Google felt that Pinterest is taking searches away from Google and sought to add Pinterest-like features in their Keen app.
Pinterest like social sharing media has got a lot of attention these days. Knowing this Facebook also recently released a similar app called " Hobbi". Facebook also released apps based on the rising trends in the market.
It seems like Google is also trying to copy the same trend with the advantage of its search algorithms.
Source: owlgen.com
Will Keen gain popularity?
Keen is Google's experiments and can be successful or end up like other Google's cancelled experimental projects. Google is known to kill off several projects every month among them which had been in development for many years. All those long lists of killed projects can be seen on the " Killed by Google" webpage.
It is said that Google Music app will also shut down at the end of 2020 and get replaced by YouTube music.
Source: digitalinfromationworld.com
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