I have mixed feeling about this.... yet another attempt by Google to get social.

I read an article somewhere else that the reason Google doesn't get social is because of its "geek" culture (no offense to fellow geeks, I'm just quoting the original article). Because Google is so technology focused, it sometimes loses its grip on human interaction.

I can't say I'm totally agreeing with that article but it does make some sense. Wave for example, technologically excellent and revolutionary, but really hard to use for a non-tech person.