If there was any question that Google’s dominance was in question, Facebook would be the biggest sore spot to the company. The reason is that all activity that takes place on Facebook remains within their servers. This reality lead me to question whether or not the like had replaced the link as the currency of information on the web. According to David Kirkpatrick, Google Insiders are definitely worried.
In an excerpt from his soon-to-be-released book, The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick explains the dynamic:
Facebook poses a concrete threat to Google’s mandate to index and organize the world’s information. “What happens on Facebook’s servers stays on Facebook’s servers,” wrote Fred Vogelstein in an insightful July 2009 article in Wire magazing titled “The Great Wall of Facebook.” “That represents a massive and fast-growing blind spot for Google.” Insiders at the search company confirm that this is a much-discussed worry there. If data inside the largest and fastest-growing Web service is off-limits to Google, its ability to serve as the definitive search site could be in jeopardy. The quantity of information we’re talking about is considerable. Status updates alone on Facebook are estimated by company insiders to amount to more than ten times more words than on all blogs worldwide.
It’s an issue that has become increasingly apparent as more users join the system. Information that helps measure the value of content around the web is entering Facebook’s system and not going back out to Google’s. If you can’t index most of the world’s information, let alone the digital information, how can you truly create an effective search engine?
While the search algorithm itself is constantly being perfected by Google, the collection of information is equally important. As the volume of information grows exponentially, Google must also grow their indexes exponentially, otherwise the company is constantly diminishing in importance. How rapid that descent is, is not quite known, however Facebook’s ascent is most definitely one sign that the Google’d dominance as the leading internet company could soon fall.
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Perhaps, the vast majority of information that resides within Facebook is actually of little or no value to someone who is doing a GOOGLE search?
Think about it.
What's within Facebook's walled garden that I really care about when I'm Googling something?
Pretty close to nothing.
I'm pretty sure any meaningful data resides outside of Facebook – and, some of the "within the garden" data should be private and not indexed by Google; i.e. personal drivel that is not substantial or meaningful (except for those who have some social voyeurism thing going).
So, basically, I don't think anyone at Google really cares about the data Facebook blocks – Google seems to be far more interested in the prospects of emerging technologies and creating interesting tools for the future than the one-trick-pony Facebook offers.
Facebook's "Like" is grossly over-hyped; the data culled from it is not as valuable as we're lead to believe. Come on, "Like" everywhere = zero contextual awareness.
Why don't Google really care though? Because Facebook is being taken over by 55+/Female Grandmothers as it's highest growth demographic…it's for old folks.
Comment by Mark — June 2, 2010 @ 4:11 pm
Intersting article here…but sounds a bit overdone to me. Will facebook help me finding solutions to problems, products and knowledge? Not to mention that it's search is far from optimal yet.
I spent a lot of time on fb, but I can hardly see it replacing forums, blogs, ebay and wikipedia – all at once.
Andrea
Comment by Andrea D'Intino — June 2, 2010 @ 4:15 pm
It's far more likely that Facebook disappears than overtakes Google. A lot of this "Like" will replace the hyperlink stuff is just wishful thinking. Pressing a "Like" button is so easy and so inane. What meaning is there? At least with a hyperlink, there's context and effort demonstrated.
Comment by anon — June 2, 2010 @ 5:33 pm
But there isn a catch 22. By being closed and holding on to data isn't Facebook setting itself up for it's own demise? There is enough databin the world to share. The Internet is not a zero sum game.
Comment by Laurent — June 2, 2010 @ 5:49 pm
I could not disagree any more. Any of the non protected info such as open events and fan pages are indexed by Google. Even if Facebook were to add Bing to their services it still wouldn't beat Google. If anything Google will be replacing Facebook in the future. Take a step back and see what Google has done in the past(email, local search, phone, browser, OS etc) and see what they are going to do in the future. Google has been building an extremely large puzzle this past decade while many top names in tech are leaving Facebook
Comment by Jason McElweenie — June 2, 2010 @ 5:51 pm
sorry but this is easily the funniest thing I've read all year
'however Facebook’s ascent is most definitely one sign that the Google’d dominance as the leading internet company could soon fall'
That is proposterous
Comment by Jason McElweenie — June 2, 2010 @ 5:57 pm
Well, it's not just Facebook, but Twitter that in a sense is taking a bite out of Google. I wouldn't give all of the credit to Facebook, but when I combine it with Twitter, my google usage drops. And my twitter search is actually increasing a lot. Google is more very specific and targeted. But google can tap into twitter. But that doesn't mean people with twitter use google.
Oh, and to Mark, the 55-65 female age group is just the fasting growing community growing on facebook. There is 16 million canadians with facebook, that's just shy of half of our country.
And, the iPhone is rumored (with patents) of integrating Facebook with it and interweaving it with contacts, etc. That I think will be a bigger blow to Google, as I know enough people, who of the apps they've downloaded, sometimes, it is only Facebook.
And to compete with android phones are social networking phones. Social networking is becoming a commodity to add onto phones as a marketing plan and advertising staple.
Google should be worried about Facebook, but not just Facebook, but the social network revolution.
Comment by Jacob W — June 2, 2010 @ 6:09 pm
Andrea – 1. there are discussion boards on every group 2. the notes feature, if developed a little further, could be a functional blog OR someone could sign up for a page and use it as a blog. 3. they do have marketplace..though it sucks 4. they seem to have brought in wikipedia's content for every one of your interests
so yeah, it already is happening or has happened, depending on how you look at it.
Comment by jesse — June 2, 2010 @ 6:44 pm
Yeah, not sure there's much value on Facebook postings. Who cares about the latest narcissistic drivel when you don't know them or have any connection. If I search Google for fixing my fridge or finding a place to eat, I don't think Facebook will really affect my desired results. Not hating on facebook, but that's just the way it is.
Comment by Mike — June 2, 2010 @ 6:46 pm
They actually have a plan for a lot of things mentioned in the second post…
Forums? Facebook Questions is already confirmed. Under beta testing.
Blogs? People are already micro-blogging on Facebook. Some folks are posting bigger posts.
eBay? Facebook already has a marketplace which is actually pretty huge.
Wikipedia? Facebook now has something called community pages. It is not going to challenge Wikipedia but it can turn into a content generating platform for Facebook.
Comment by Sushubh Mittal — June 2, 2010 @ 7:35 pm
You're forgetting two things: when you post a link to your wall or somebody else's wall in Facebook, that link doesn't exist on the FB servers; and, as FB becomes more and more open, Google's web crawlers should be able to pick stuff up that has been posted to FB and report it in search results. Or did I misunderstand the whole concept of "opening up" Facebook?
Comment by Stephen Feller — June 2, 2010 @ 8:06 pm
The status updates on Facebook aren't worth indexing. Google succeeded by weeding out spam and worthless sites while the other "search" engines were over-run with crap.
Indexing facebook would be a big step backward. Who freakin' cares.
Comment by Ted — June 2, 2010 @ 11:56 pm
Google already picks up certain posts!
I think its a matter of creating the right app by Google to get access to the social graph etc and sync it with the crawlers and Google interface.
Comment by Jeremy Croes — June 3, 2010 @ 12:33 am
99% of the information on Facebook is (should be) private. 99% on Google is public. Most relevant and public information in FB gets replicated elsewhere on the open web.
Last but not least, there IS value in the private information inside FB, but it shouldn’t be used neither by Google OR Facebook.
It is as nonsense as if Facebook started being concerned about data in Gmail, to some extent (Zucker asks himself: “why can’t we have ALL private data in the world?”).
Comment by Felipe Vaz — June 3, 2010 @ 9:39 am
It is to Google's credit they are concerned about Facebook. Taking nothing away from Facebook, Google is in far more spaces than Facebook, with significant improvements coming often and across the board (anyone looked at Docs, Buzz and Wave in the past 3 weeks?). Google will continue to flourish.
Comment by Hamilton Wallace — June 3, 2010 @ 9:40 am
I completely agree with Nick on this. One look at a recent Nielson report http://en-us.nielsen.com/rankings/insights/rankings/internet (see the “Time per Person” column), confirms conclusively that people are spending way more time using Facebook than Google. This alone gives them the upper hand in advertising, and the Like button holds great promise, though not yet realized, in changing the marketing landscape in providing ads that we actually care about.
Don’t forget that Facebook is also partnering with Microsoft (who must be comping at the “Bing” right now), to integrate Microsoft Docs, and I’m sure collaborating on search technologies, among other technologies to be released over the coming year.
As it relates to finding stuff, the search algorithm of the future is US. And the company that develops the most compelling technologies that let us connect with each other to find “relevant” results, wins. I’d say based on that, Facebook has this all but wrapped up. But it’s there game to loose at this point, and Mark Z has a lot to learn in order for that to happen.
But with membership continuing to rise even through the Privacy debacle, I’d say Facebook has everything it needs to beat Google at the REAL game, advertising.
Bill Manos, Co-Founder
FavRav.com
Comment by William Manos — June 3, 2010 @ 10:49 am
How un-techsavvy can you people be? FB already has "notes" feature which is no different from normal blogging, status updates which are no different than "microblogging", built-in forum systems for discussing anything under the sun in a topical-based location,
As for "meaningful data", google functions based on social calculations, not raw data. If 20,000 people "like" a page and share it as a link on FB, google gets no data from any of this, no data from any of the people that use the facebook imbeded copy of the page(in instances like videos), and virtually no tracking data regardless of user actions. If the most popular video for "knife throwing tips" has 500k more hits from Facebook than any other, google wouldn't have the slightest idea of that–despite the fact that, by definition, the most popular video should be the highest-ranked search return. This goes for anything meaningful… if people are only linking things they find meaningful in FB, then google has no idea what "meaningful" is anymore. The best pie recipe is more likely some repeatedly re-shared FB link, yet, if it's never shared off FB, google wouldn't even know it exists.
Everyone naysaying on this really hasn't looked at how deep these things go. "Solutions to problems, products and knowledge"? Facebook links I've seen include bug bite tips, product comparison testing, and relevant news articles from periodicals that are buried so deep in google results I've never seen them before. It's all there if you bother looking.
I learned how to make a guitar this week. I don't yearn to, but a friend of mine apparently makes them, and shared his photo-laden exploits of crafting a $3,000 masterpiece last weekend. I don't know if that will ever be relevant to me, but it's definitely there for all the world to see, and only on FB.
There's more to FB than farmville, and it's surprising to see how many people don't realize that.
Comment by mmm — June 3, 2010 @ 12:46 pm
I'm with Mark: so much of Facebook content is of little searchable value. You only have to look at the new community pages in FB to see how much trivial useless content can be drawn in. I don't mind at all if Google can't access all of that …
Comment by Michelle Prak — June 3, 2010 @ 4:32 pm
This is a joke – search for any content in facebook and google, which one gives you the results you are after? exacly.
Facebook needs to remember that they are just a social network for family and friends to talk to each other, trying to be something they are not will bring them down big time.
Comment by john — June 3, 2010 @ 4:50 pm
Let us not compare Google and Facebook. Facebook is just for timepass, Google is for real business. If tomorrow there is no Facebook, it doesn't affect world. But it's not true for Google.
Comment by Punit Pandey — June 6, 2010 @ 10:30 am
Look at the history of religions .. pacifist and open minded (e.g. pagan religions .. everyone gets his/her gods) get challenged by increasingly fundamentalist ones .. monotheistic Judaism > Christianity > Islam.
Similarly the "free"-thinking argumentative city-state oriented greeks became the slaves of the narrow minded imperialist empire Romans!
One of the newspapers add this I clicked more … and found 300+ social tagging sites. With twitter & facebook sucking the O2 out of Web2, guess what happens?
Pity Google Buzz, Yahoo Buzz and whatever is MSN/Windows Live Buzz is called – they have no chance of getting started … except for their 100s of millions of users.
I think the only way to combat this is for the tagging sites to provide some added value or to cooperate somehow, so tagging one place publishes it lots of other places .. otherwise people will Fb Like/tweet all these sites to death!
Does any one cry for Microsoft when Google tries to undermine them. It is rather possessive and aggressive Jobs & Zuckerbergs who will stick it to Google in turn.
So while the current status updates seem farcical, the reality is that over last few years nearly everyone has come onto facebook. When there is lockin, that is when fb will REALLY start making money.
Comment by phillip jain — June 8, 2010 @ 8:04 pm
The data that's behind the great facebook wall isn't worth indexing in the first place for the most part.
It's largely personal messages between two people that aren't of any relevance to people other than them.
Comment by Internet Marketing A — June 9, 2010 @ 1:45 am
Yeah, Facebook will replace Google when instead of searching for weather forecasts, driving directions, movie times, tech support, or random trivia, I will want to search for relationship statuses and Farmville updates.
Comment by Miriam Mogilevsky — June 12, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
Of course this post is some months old, probably years in internet years… Anyway, most know that Facebook and Google are running neck and neck with traffic and Facebook has actually overtaken Google by just a little.
However, I don't see the need for Google going away. I see it mainly as something marketers really have to contemplate and create strategies for both of them.
Comment by David — February 2, 2011 @ 3:34 pm
are you getting your assumptions out of your ass ?
haha
Google is by far more intelligence-aimed company, whereas facebook draws it's power from morons (I mean.. who else spends time on social network except people without real life friends or real hobbies)
Gogole company also could simply buy, chew up and spit out facebook. You clearly don't see the enormous differences between the might of these companies.
Comment by TNT — February 9, 2011 @ 4:27 am
A blind spot perhaps, but more likely a tree blocking the sunset for a moment but will reappear in just a bit if you have patience. Or you can move you vantage point to get around the tree. Google has so much info, data, power and money that this is a bit over exaggerated. Facebook is indeed massive as well and has great data, but changes in data in Google's searches should correspond to changes in Facebook. Google has other ways to scape data off Facebook should they really find it necessary or pay for it if they really want it.
Comment by Peter Celnicker — May 3, 2011 @ 10:52 am