In the midst of the controversey surrounding Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's admission that they hired PR consultants to smear Google in a whisper campaign that included forcing newspapers like USA Today to write nasty op-ed pieces, Google must be doubly upset by the problems they experienced this week with their blogging platform Blogger if only because we can assume Mark Zuckerberg is enjoying their woes.
But let's get to the more juicy stuff. For example, how scared is Zuckerberg and his FB minions of Google's social networking platform Social Circle? Having already won the race from his dorm room I would assume Zuckerberg, who has often said he doesn't care about what he's worth (and I mean this in a literal and figurative way), wouldn't care about losing millions in revenues to Google. But obviously he does. What I don't get really is why FB would fess up to being shady so easily.
The reality is with people accessing webpages more and more often through social networking sites like Facebook, it's Google who should be scared. Their recent efforts to scan books and offer them online was met with lawsuits. Their Google art project received very tepid applause. Like golf claps tepid. As one of my friends so artfully put it, "it's pretty fucking useless". But then again this friend in particular has the means to stomp about the globe visiting museums and art in person. In the current economy not that many people can afford the luxury. And these are just recent muck ups. Google failed to buy Friendster or to launch their own social networking platform even though their original social networking platform launched one whole month before "The Facebook".
I simply don't believe that Facebook is the underdog in this situation, although there are those (yes I mean you senior writer for Wired) who disagree with me and believe in the end that with all their fingers in their many, many pies that Google is the Goliath and that Zuckerberg is going to need a much bigger and better slingshot if Facebook is going to keep their share of the market.
But Facebook does have one advantage and that is that their users don't seem to care for the most part what stunts they pull because they're not going to stop using Facebook. And why would we? Even I as a somewhat disgruntled user spend most of my day on Facebook communicating with my friends and not just my friend who is Papua New Guinea or my friends in Argentina. I communicate with my friends who happen to live just an hour away on Facebook. It's pathetic really but Facebook has become the Soma of the our brave new world.
Just take a look at this image that visualises Facebook connections around the world...
Sure I still use Google's Gmail to check my email and Google is my preferred search engine (I honestly don't think Google should be worrying about Bing at all, it's a horrible search engine), I log on for 20-30 minutes a day on Gmail. Today I've already been on Facebook for a solid 12 hours. With that kind of competition, no wonder Google is trying so hard to give us, the user, what we don't even know we want.
But there is hope for Google, who may just be the real underdog here. While I spend 12 hours a day on Facebook I have never once clicked on any of their ads. With the last violation of my privacy I make it a weekly mission to make sure none of my private information is being shared. It makes me wonder how many Facebook users are like me and don't click on ads either. It's hard to imagine that it doesn't affect Facebook's bottom line if not now some day in the distant future and that might just be where and how Google will win this rumble in the social networking jungle. I mean Foreman was pretty fantastic and all, but Ali still won in the end didn't he?
But let's get to the more juicy stuff. For example, how scared is Zuckerberg and his FB minions of Google's social networking platform Social Circle? Having already won the race from his dorm room I would assume Zuckerberg, who has often said he doesn't care about what he's worth (and I mean this in a literal and figurative way), wouldn't care about losing millions in revenues to Google. But obviously he does. What I don't get really is why FB would fess up to being shady so easily.
The reality is with people accessing webpages more and more often through social networking sites like Facebook, it's Google who should be scared. Their recent efforts to scan books and offer them online was met with lawsuits. Their Google art project received very tepid applause. Like golf claps tepid. As one of my friends so artfully put it, "it's pretty fucking useless". But then again this friend in particular has the means to stomp about the globe visiting museums and art in person. In the current economy not that many people can afford the luxury. And these are just recent muck ups. Google failed to buy Friendster or to launch their own social networking platform even though their original social networking platform launched one whole month before "The Facebook".
I simply don't believe that Facebook is the underdog in this situation, although there are those (yes I mean you senior writer for Wired) who disagree with me and believe in the end that with all their fingers in their many, many pies that Google is the Goliath and that Zuckerberg is going to need a much bigger and better slingshot if Facebook is going to keep their share of the market.
But Facebook does have one advantage and that is that their users don't seem to care for the most part what stunts they pull because they're not going to stop using Facebook. And why would we? Even I as a somewhat disgruntled user spend most of my day on Facebook communicating with my friends and not just my friend who is Papua New Guinea or my friends in Argentina. I communicate with my friends who happen to live just an hour away on Facebook. It's pathetic really but Facebook has become the Soma of the our brave new world.
Just take a look at this image that visualises Facebook connections around the world...
Sure I still use Google's Gmail to check my email and Google is my preferred search engine (I honestly don't think Google should be worrying about Bing at all, it's a horrible search engine), I log on for 20-30 minutes a day on Gmail. Today I've already been on Facebook for a solid 12 hours. With that kind of competition, no wonder Google is trying so hard to give us, the user, what we don't even know we want.
But there is hope for Google, who may just be the real underdog here. While I spend 12 hours a day on Facebook I have never once clicked on any of their ads. With the last violation of my privacy I make it a weekly mission to make sure none of my private information is being shared. It makes me wonder how many Facebook users are like me and don't click on ads either. It's hard to imagine that it doesn't affect Facebook's bottom line if not now some day in the distant future and that might just be where and how Google will win this rumble in the social networking jungle. I mean Foreman was pretty fantastic and all, but Ali still won in the end didn't he?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment.