Another Key Feature Of Google +1: Massive-Scale Social Video Conferencing
Over the past few weeks, we've been able to dig up a bunch of details about Google's secret forthcoming social service. The service, previously codenamed “Emerald Sea” but currently being called “+1” …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the third beat in TechCrunch's December drip on Google's secret social project: the '+1' name surfaced December 3 alongside word that Sergey Brin had gotten personally involved, then a leaked internal screenshot accidentally confirmed the codename December 7. Today's report adds substance to what was previously just a name — every detail about the service remains unconfirmed, sourced from digging rather than Google statements.
The video-conferencing angle also connects backward to August, when Kara Swisher flagged integrated video calling as the feature to watch at Google's mobile event, and further back to a 2007 argument that Google could achieve social network domination. If the rumor holds, video becomes the wedge rather than a news feed clone.
First-order effects
- If massive-scale group video ships inside '+1', Google enters consumer video chat at social scale directly against incumbent chat services — using its own data-center footprint as the differentiator rather than licensing third-party infrastructure.
Second-order effects
- Skype and other consumer video providers face pressure to add free multi-party features of their own, since a free, unlimited-participant offering from Google resets user expectations on pricing for group video.
Third-order effects
- Bundling real-time video into search and social turns Google's server capacity into a distribution moat: competitors without comparable infrastructure must rent scale, while Google can give it away to defend its core search business — a structural advantage that compounds if the pattern holds across other media types like its rumored film streaming expansion.
The trend: Google is moving from standalone products toward a bundled social layer where owned infrastructure — video, maps, streaming — functions as the moat against Facebook-era competition.