Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Last week Google announced its new social gadgets for iGoogle. Given all the ways we already have to be social, I figured they’d do something competitively interesting, something I would want to add to my homepage. But, no.

I’m not sure what kind of world the people who work at Google live in, but spending 30 minutes playing Scrabble or Chess with a friend is not within the realm of possibility at this busy agency. And anyone who is using Twitter will find their Timeline offering completely lame. Why would we use Social Photos when we have Flickr? There is so little that is innovative or social about these gadgets that it kinda makes me wonder what they’re thinking over at the Googleplex. Anything to get in the game?

I know Google is continuously trying to find more ways to weave itself inextricably into our lives and become indispensable to life itself, but isn’t the search thing enough? It’s already the center of the online universe. Besides, isn’t the iPhone already that thing indispensable to life itself?