A few days ago, the Internet was abuzz with speculation that Google would have a splashy launch of a Facebook rival called “Google Circles” at South by Southwest. That didn’t materialize, with Google disputing that such a feature even existed. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch wrote a post called “Social Is Too Important For Google To Screw Up With A Big Launch Circus,” arguing that with Orkut and Buzz having more or less failed, Google wasn’t eager to swing hard and miss a third time. Rather, he wrote, “I’m guessing we’ll see more small releases over time.”