Gmail

On April 3, Apple released the newest member of its uber-popular family into the world, and technophiles were so jazzed that they snapped up over 600,000 iPads in five short days. But Apple-hungry consumers weren’t the only ones who were excited about the iPad—most* of the web’s biggest social players were pretty darned enthused as well, and they weren’t afraid to show it:

Google: To take full advantage of the large iPad screen, Google reformatted Gmail. The two-column display is basically an enhanced version of the single column Gmail for Mobile app that was created for the iPhone and Android. (Some Gmail users even argue that Gmail for the iPad is an enhanced version of traditional Gmail and are going to great lengths to make it their desktop default.)
Flickr: The photo and video sharing site gleefully announced on its blog that it would be making its videos iPad-compatible by introducing HTML5 playback. (Until very recently, nearly all websites embedded videos using Flash, but since the iPad doesn’t support Flash, sites are switching their vids over to HTML5 to keep up.)  
WordPress: WordPress also trumpeted its foray into iPad territory on its blog (a move that was actually quite apropos and vaguely existential). The blogging website has released a new version of its iPhone app that’s compatible with the iPad and comes equipped with all sorts of fun features like the ability to geotag blog updates.
YouTube: I found nary a peep about the iPad on the YouTube blog, but Apple was very vocal on the video giant’s behalf. The iPad comes with a built-in YouTube app, which, like big brother Gmail, is formatted to suit the iPad screen.
Facebook: Facebook has been making apps for Apple products since the beginning of time, so everyone was waiting to see what it had in store for the iPad. As it turns out, what it had in store was nothing. More accurately, a Facebook app was in the works for the iPad, but its life was cut short when its programmer took issue with the App Store screening process and quit the project. Some Tom, Dick, or Steve did create a Facebook app called Facebook Ultimate, but it developed a horrible reputation among iPad users (and infringed on the Facebook copyright to boot) and Apple has since removed it from the App Store. There is a bit of hope for the disgruntled Facebook user, and it comes in the form of http://touch.facebook.com/, which is a stripped down version of regular old Facebook that fits better on the iPad screen.
    
*Twitter is conspicuously absent from this list, and with good reason—the micro-blogging phenom didn’t go to any lengths to adapt itself to the iPad. Happily for tweet-o-holics, however, the App Store has been flooded with third-party Twitter apps (the ones from TweetDeck and Twitterific are said to be particularly excellent) that pick up the slack. 

If you’re one of the lucky few techies who’s already gotten his hands on an iPad, go ahead and tweet, blog, email, or update your Facebook status about how you’re tweeting, blogging, emailing, or updating your Facebook status with your all-powerful fingertips. Those of us old-fashioned mice-and-keyboard folks will be mighty jealous indeed.

In late 2006, rumors swirled that Google was thinking about purchasing Facebook for a cool $2.6 bil (or maybe less, depending on how willing you were to believe the hype). In the end, Facebook decided to remain independent (a move that seems to have worked to their advantage so far) leaving Google social network-less. Of course, Google is never, ever willing to be outdone, so a few weeks ago the search giant rolled out its very own social network—Buzz.

Buzz is part of Gmail, which Google (rightly) claims has always been a social network waiting to happen. Buzz allows users to create profiles and update their statuses just like its social network competitors, but it’s also sort of like an RSS feed on crack: Users can link any number of social media accounts that they already have (including Flickr, Blogger, Twitter, Google Reader, and YouTube accounts) to their Buzz account so that when they update these networks, the updates automatically appear to their friends on Buzz as well.

Google believes that by promoting Buzz on the Gmail platform, they are giving it distinct advantages over social network numero uno, Facebook. For one thing, users don’t have to search for new friends—Buzz recognizes who's friends with whom via users' Gmail contacts and connects them automatically. Google also boasts that by integrating Buzz into Gmail, users will be able to track Buzz alerts and respond to them without having to follow links and log in to an outside site.
 
Still, with 400 million users, Facebook is without a doubt the top social media dog, and it doesn't seem poised to budge. But social network and media sites are certainly not immortal—before Facebook came along, MySpace was king, and now it’s virtually dead (well, at least as far as people over the age of 16 are concerned). The trouble with MySpace was that it felt incredibly juvenile—users decorated their profiles with sporty and sparkly princess themes, added music that assaulted profile visitors, and “totally wunted u 2 luk @ there pics from SpRiNg BrEaK”! Facebook toppled MySpace because it was cleaner, offered only a single, standardized layout, and promised users increased privacy (it was open only to college students once upon a time, you know).

For all the bells and whistles and apps and Pages that it has added since its inception, Facebook continues to feel like a social network that’s adult and “with it.”  And Facebook users, in spite of their moaning about the endless (and senseless) redesigns, constantly changing privacy settings, and annoying calls to “Join my mafia!” and “Help me raise my barn!” are largely pretty content with Facebook—their friends, their pictures, their videos, and their wall posts are all there, after all. Buzz might catch on among a few Gmail users (in an “I’m here so I’ll give it a try” sort of way) but unless Buzz offers a feature that Facebook absolutely cannot duplicate (and we know from the Twitter-like “live feed” that Facebook will try) it’s hard to believe that the Facebook Empire would actually lose a significant number of its users to the new kid in the Google-verse.