Google may have this social networking thing down, after all – although it was just formally announced on Friday, a Google News app for Facebook already has almost 2,300 daily active users.
The app’s long-term performance might be a better indicator of its success (or failure) -early interest or even a bunch of Googlers could have inflated current numbers. Also, Vanessa Fox points to evidence that it may have snuck out of development earlier in the month, giving it time to build an audience. Still, The New York Times News Quiz is a similar app, and with just 650 daily active users, it’s already been labeled a success.
On to what the Google News app does, then. “This experimental application enables users to create custom sections or select from a set of pre-defined topics, then browse and share stories with their friends on Facebook,” wrote Google’s own Tina Huang and Dan Meredith. You might imagine that this is out of line with popular Zombie- and food fight-related apps, but again, we’ll just have to see how the numbers stabilize.
The Google News team revealed one other trick in recent days: YouTube videos became somewhat easy to find on the main Google News page. It seems that a lot of products are getting tied together; this development also acts as evidence of Google’s interest in Facebook.
