Rumor has it that Google will launch its social network called "Google Me" which is aimed to rival facebook. Some refer to it as the "facebook killer". This news came from a tweet posted by the founder of Digg, Kevin Rose which wrote: "Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon "Google Me", very credible source". It was then confirmed by Adam D’angelo, facebook’s former CTO from his Q&A site called Quora that it is not a rumor and that the project exists. Large number of people are already working on it and he added that it is a high-priority project within google.

Some speculate that Google Me might be a combination or an integration of both Orkut and Google Buzz since both need a google account and a gmail account respectively to join these social networking sites. In addition, google could take advantage of the 200 million members that both sites already have. Buzz by the way has been considered slightly successful in its attempt to compete with facebook. Other speculations that surfaced is a tweet from Chris Saad that says that it could be an upgrade of Google’s "Google Profiles".

It should be noted that facebook holds a base of around 450 million memberships which will eventually increase to 500 million despite of the privacy issues it had faced. And by what is shown on alexa, viewers seem to spend more time in facebook compared to google. More than 30 minutes as opposed to 10 to less than 20 minutes. Also, facebook recently announced the arrival of its Open Graph search feature, a platform that websites could use to be included in facebook’s search. It was even likened to be a "google killer". Therefore, it would be safe to assume that google will really have to take the necessary steps to counter competition, hence a social networking service. This idea, if implemented, may not altogether kill facebook, nevertheless, it could be a strong move for google.

Resources:
Quora: Is "Google Me" a fake rumor? Misleading evolutionary product update? Or is it really a new social network from Google?
The Next Web: Here’s how Google could take on Facebook.
The Huffington Post: Google Me: Google to Launch a ’Facebook Killer’?