Ping vs Buzz vs Facebook; Who Will Win the Social Networking Wars? [Apple’s New iTunes-based Social Network, Ping, Kicks Ass While Buzz Doesn’t; Should Facebook be Afraid?]

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It’s not only Google that enters new markets and new business whenever it pleases. It looks like this strategy is like a disease, and given a large enough capital any other giant corporation will try to succeed in new endeavors with the ultimate goal of making a fresh chunk of money. It’s not because they love their customers, but rather because all of these giant corporation love money.

Social networking has just gotten a lot more interesting this week as Apple announced what was long rumored. iTunes has a social networking side called Ping. A rather silly name (Pink and Bing are already in use), but then again all the good social network names were taken, and they’re not that great either. Moving past the name we see a great social networking solution for our web 2.0 needs. One that has potential, unlike Google’s Buzz, a totally failed project that also emerged this year.

So should Facebook be afraid? Facebook is probably the uncrowned king of the social networking business, and like any king it has a life filled with controversy. The ultimate goal is to make lots and lots of piles of Benjamin Franklins no matter how many privacy matters it would infringe and no matter how great or noble its goals were when all this craziness started. Facebook started as a cool project and gradually evolved into this monster you can’t stay away from today. With 500 million users, and the number is growing every day, Facebook seems like it can’t lose the un-awarded first place in the social networking business, but is it really so?

Unlike Facebook, that started as a simple project, Apple’s newly announced social network and Google’s Buzz were conceived not only as attempted viable solutions to Facebook and Twitter, but as logical products meant to be integrated with other products coming from these two important corporations.

And while Google Buzz failed to take off, and it’s probably still failing at it, Apple’s Ping got 1 million active users in two days. Sure, you’ll say that in this day and age, social networking is something we take for granted when we talk about the current state of the Internet. In other words this rapid growth is partly based on the popularity of Facebook or MySpace, services that have been around for ages to the point that every Internet-aware individual has mastered the art of social networking. Therefore every individual already knows how Ping works and what it will discover inside even before using it. And thanks to the simplicity of Facebook, Twitter, Digg, MySpace, and the list can go on, the individual can easily adapt to Ping and quickly become an active user.

But, if it were that simple, Facebook will probably prevail in the end. But the thing that makes Ping stand out is that people will, whether they want it or not, be encouraged or even forced to embrace it. Because Ping is a feature of a service that so many people use and love/hate: iTunes. And iTunes is the core of the whole Apple mobile business. There’s where the magic is at: music, ebooks, applications, videos are all somehow accessed through iTunes. So, whether you like it or not, you’ll use iTunes on your Apple mobile devices. iOS has direct “doors” to the iTunes portal: the iTunes app itself, the App Store, the iBooks app and, ultimately, the Ping.

So if you’re every day invited to sync your iPhone, to get new apps, new movies, or new songs, at some point you’ll want to stalk keep up your former boyfriend or girlfriend, you’ll want to follow Lady Gaga and see what unusual and unnecessary stuff she has been up to recently and you’ll want to be as cool as all your peers and engage them in Ping too. Because Ping is the latest thing in town, it’s made by Apple and therefore magical.

Currently Apple has 120 million iOS devices. At some point or another a lot of their owners will start being more active on Ping considering how much time they spend in iTunes anyway. And each month Apple will sell a few million more iOS devices, and even more people will be Pinging each other and their friends. Add to that a drop of Apple fanboyism, and you’ve got a growing crowed that will rely on Ping in order to show off their social networking skills. They’ll still be active on Facebook and Twitter and anything else, but Ping will not be neglected. And if you think Ping will not have all the resources Facebook has, well, think again! iTunes has plenty of apps and every Facebook service can be mimicked rediscovered reinvented by Ping in the near future. Oh, and let’s not forget the new Apple TV is coming. That’s going to be another tool that can serve’s Apple’s chase for more money, and will be another device that comes with Pinging support.

And while Apple has 499 million more Ping users to get until it reaches Facebook, although Facebook will keep on growing so this number will be actually higher, Facebook definitely has a lot of reasons to be afraid of Apple’s Ping. Because Ping will magically change everything, again, in the social networking business! Unlike Google’s Buzz, at least not for now.

So, what do you think? Is Ping a real threat to other social networking sites out there? Let us hear your thoughts, whether you love or hate Apple! Or Google! Or Facebook!