News emerged today that Google is hard at work on a new, somewhat secret bookmarking service. According to Florian Kiersch, a German student who enjoys trawling Google code, the new Chrome feature still being developed will replace Google collections and will be called Google Stars.
Google Stars promises to not just save a link, like other bookmarking services, but the whole page, along with images and videos, organising in a searchable visual grid format. Your bookmarks will be saved in a collection format, under a theme you decide. Thus you can create one for cars, home decor, fashion, owls and so on.
It also appears that you will be able to “star” more than links. Emails from your Gmail account, as well as youtube videos or pictures results from a Google Image search will also be easily added to your collections, with a simple click of an adjoining star icon.
While by default private, your collection will be easily sharable publicly, thus making it very easy for anyone to create a unique public Pinboard collection. Because after all, Pinterest is nothing more than a giant visual public bookmarking service where users share web discoveries. Google Star is the same.
It is not really a surprise that Google would go after Pinterest. After all, if you are on the web and successful, Google will either buy you or try and destroy you. It doesn’t always work but with practically unlimited funds, it certainly makes for a mighty adversary. Since rumors are that Pinterest is on the selling block, this could also be an attempt at hurting its valuation. A company with a Google alternative is not so appealing anymore.
Google Star will also allow the search giant to better understand what your tastes are, along with hints on what you intent to purchase. It will also be a huge help in Google search algorithm, as the most bookmark sites will rise up in the search results.
Google Star is slated to go public at the next Google I/O conference at the end of June.
Author: Paul Melcher
Paul Melcher is a highly influential and visionary leader in visual tech, with 20+ years of experience in licensing, tech innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is the Managing Director of MelcherSystem and has held executive roles at Corbis, Stipple, and more. Melcher received a Digital Media Licensing Association Award and is a board member of Plus Coalition, Clippn, and Anthology, and has been named among the “100 most influential individuals in American photography”