• TechCrunch, Monday, October 29, 2007 11 AM

Google may have lost out on a piece of Facebook, but the Web giant is now responding by moving headlong into the territory of Facebook and MySpace. Google plans to incorporate social media features into all of its applications, using them as the glue that sticks each application together. The initiative goes by the name "Maka-Maka" and borrows heavily from Facebook.

For example, Google aims to make "activity steams," like those news and mini feeds you see on your Facebook profile, a key part of each Google application. You could see those feeds appearing inside your iGoogle homepage that displays your daily news and weather along with a snapshot of your Gmail inbox. Google will use the engine that powers Google Reader to create the streams.

"Maka-Maka" has much more to it, of course. Google ultimately aims to "out open" Facebook's platform by letting programmers have access to Google's social graph--which includes data from Orkut, Gmail and Google Talk-to create programs that operate with any or all Google apps and services. The "Maka-Maka" initiative will be unveiled in stages; the first is slated for around Nov. 5.

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