Google is Cheating, Copying Facebook's Profile Design

By now, you may have read Google’s recent post, “Decide what the world sees when it searches for you,” and seen the various reactions and comments around the web today. However you define copying, the bottom line is, these new Google social profiles sure do look an awful lot like Facebook profile pages.

Apologies for the brief satire and throwback to Hiybbprqagate, but when I first saw Google’s redesigned profiles, that’s all I could think. No need for a “Googling-sting” here. Just look at this sample profile Google provided and tell me that this isn’t inspired greatly by Facebook:

Just toss a newsfeed under the photos and you’ve got a near clone. And some early reviews are in:

• “I really thought that what has long been missing from Google Profiles is that it just didn’t look enough like my Facebook profile.”
• “I think its a welcome change but does anyone else feel this is somewhat similar to the new facebook profiles?”
• “I’ve always wanted a profile from Google which looks like my Facebook profile, but without my friends or photos connected to it.”

Yes, so Google has announced the “new look and feel” pages are beginning to roll out. Those who don’t have them yet will be automatically updated.

Google thinks the new design “helps highlight the information that’s most important to you, making it easier for people who visit your profile to get to know you.” Also, Google notes: “Because Profiles are designed to be public pages on the web, used to help connect and find real people, we’ll be asking people to provide the name they are commonly referred to in the real world.”

The pages are an improvement visually. However, as Andy Beal notes, Google has itself a bit of a duplicate content issue with the new profiles.

Want a Google Profile? Go here.