Google Moves One Step Closer To Being "Social"

a) Google knows all* about content.
b) Google knows something about some people (those with Google Accounts).

Google is now putting 'a' together with 'b' and starting to link (some) content with (some) people. No big deal? Not really, Facebook does that already, in fact Facebook probably knows all* about some people. But Facebook is a closed ("walled") environment, you're either inside playing or outside looking in, and despite what Facebook may think it's a very VERY small playground.

Google plays on the World Wide Web.
It does this by utilising ever increasingly used standards (OAuth for instance) - this is a much larger playground. For more on this use of the basic building blocks see Breaking Down What's Happening on the Social Web by David Recordon at O'Reilly.

One small step towards a truly global "social net".
And this is a worry for the closed environment dudes which explains why Facebook immediately shut down access to Google's Friend Connect (story, Facebook's version)

It's also probably a worry for those that think "social networking is just gay!" - perhaps they should read Social Networking for the Anti-Social by Mark Hansen

* all = loads, more than anyone else