Google tries social again

Google is making another effort in social media after the failure of Google+ with a new app called Spaces.

The app, available from Monday, is designed to "build a better group sharing experience" and integrates with Google's other products including YouTube, search and its Chrome browser to make it "simple to find and share articles, videos and images".

Why will anyone use it if they already have Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Whatsapp and everything else? Because, according to Google, it will be easy to find past content with a simple search - something that is notoriously difficult to do with other apps.

Of course, that assumes that people want to find past content: many young users of social apps like the fact that what they share almost instantly vanishes.

Google will be pushed Spaces at its Google I/O conference this week. ®