Despite pushback from Twitter and Facebook, Schmidt says Google is open to partnerships

Now that Google has its own social network, it’s happy to invite Facebook and Twitter to the party too.

Even though it has launched  Google+, Google is happy to forge partnerships with other social networks, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Friday at the Allen & Co. media conference. Schmidt said he believes there’s plenty of room for multiple social networks to coexist. He added that he’d “love to have deeper integration with Twitter and Facebook” on the company’s new Google+ service.

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The company recently indicated that it wants to open up third-party developer access to Google+’s video chat feature Hangouts.

But Google’s friendly attitude towards working with major social media companies shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The Google+ service is still in its infancy and has a very small user base compared to Facebook or Twitter. If Google+ were deeply integrated with larger social services, it would gain access to much larger communities that otherwise wouldn’t be available.

Deep integration with Google+ would be far less beneficial to Facebook or Twitter —  both of which don’t need Google to succeed, and could be very threatened by it if it becomes successful.

Both Twitter and Facebook likely view Google’s new social network as a major competitor, even if it’s not threatening their dominance. It’s also unlikely that a partnership with Google+ would happen any time soon for either of the social media companies.

Schmidt said attempts to work with Facebook on a solution that would allow Facebook users to export their account information were fruitless. Conversely, Google+ does allow its users to export their account information.

Clearly, Facebook is far more dominant in the social media space than Google+. Yet its reaction toward working with Google+ suggests that it views the service as a future threat.

Twitter is also playing hardball with Google+. The company’s real-time search deal with Google recently expired despite “a substantive and lengthy discussion” to renew, according to Schmidt.

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Source: Reuters