Will Google ever get social ?

Last week we saw Google Wave laid to rest. It sure was a hard and treacherous journey for this much-hyped product - it was supposed to change real-time web, but ended up making Google look incapable of producing a social platform that the average Joe can understand.I remember receiving my first invitation to Google wave feeling like a pimple face kid getting his brand new date-able car, all excited and wanting to take it for a spin. However, the thing about this car is that it looked good on the outside but the driving experience left a lot of be desired. Everything felt like it had been sourced from a second hand part shop.Like a second-hand car, Google dumped the Google Wave project and went on to create Google Buzz a stripped-down, easy-to-understand platform, very similar to Twitter. While this sounded much more user-friendly, its privacy complications meant we were still  disapointed.There are talks of yet another social platform called "Google ME". Based on my and most people's experience with Google's previous two attempts, you'll excuse me if I don't hold my breath.One Social platform Google has got it right is Orkut. It seems that  rather than investing more time and funding into improving their one successful social product, Google is chasing that 'first in market' place, searching for the next big thing.Yes Google is a hub for all the best PH.D.'s, child prodigy, world class engineers and professors, but maybe their genius is blinding them to the needs of the everyday user.Will Google ever get the "Social" space. Yes, but first they need to take a step back, come down out of their ivory tower and start building on what they've already got.