This weekend, ReadWriteWeb posted an article titled "Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today" that had detailed look about a supposedly new social network that would offer photo, video, and status message sharing. The report, which went into quite a bit of detail about the product, said Google would likely unveil it in some form at South by Southwest Interactive today.
This news was quickly followed by a report from All Things Digital titled "False Alarm: Google Circles Not Coming Now-and Probably Not Ever." At this point, Google said that it was not launching anything this week at the event in Austin, Texas and that such a product was not even under development, according to the people supposedly developing it.
All of this was posted not too long after a rumor started that Google would be launching its Facebook killer in two months. Frankly, we think Mountain View was planning on showing something off this week but either changed its mind, or decided to show something slightly different.
Regardless of what Google ends up doing this week, here's what we believe is happening. First of all, Google is definitely working on its own social network, or at least a social layer for its various products and services, in some shape or form. Whether this will launch or not, and when, is another story. Second of all, the company definitely has more than one project name for its various attempts, including Google Me, Google Circles, and many more we have yet to hear of, and maybe never will.