Will ‘Google Me’ be the Facebook killer?

There is a rumor floating around that Google is working on a new social network, called “Google Me.” Digg founder Kevin Rose, tweeted last week (and then later retracted) that he learned from a very credible source that Google is about to unveil a rival to Facebook.

It looks like more details are emerging. Former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo answered a ‘Google Me’ related question on the Q & A service, Quora:

“This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.

They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.

Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.

They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.”

If Google truly is developing a rival to Facebook, I hope it will be better than Google Buzz (which has been a disappointment in my opinion). I think the timing is perfect for Google considering the recent backlash that Facebook has received from users and the media regarding their recent platform changes. Then again, Google Buzz had some serious privacy issues as well.

What do you think? Do you think Google can pull off a new social network that can be the ultimate rival to Facebook?