Google Tries Social Networking Again, Challenging Facebook Events

What’s Google working on after shuttering Google+ ? An anonymous reader quotes The Verge:
Google’s in-house incubator, Area 120, is working on a new social networking app called Shoelace which is aimed at organizing local events and activities. You use it by listing your interests in the app, allowing it to recommend a series of “hand-picked” local activities which it calls “Loops.” You can also organize your own events, and there’s a map interface to view and RSVP to other people’s Loops. Shoelace’s soft-launch comes just months after Google shut down Google+, its most prominent attempt at building a social media platform. However, rather than trying to create a new all-encompassing social network to rival the likes of Facebook, Shoelace seems to have much more modest ambitions that take aim at Facebook’s ubiquitous Events functionality… [I]t’s also only available in New York City at the moment; the team says it’s hoping to expand to more cities across the US soon.