Google vs. Facebook

Evidently Facebook is being deemed ”King of the Social Networks” and  Google is not happy about it.  Who would have thought a small company from California would be able to threaten the Google gods and all their advertising hoopla? 

According to Wikipedia, for those who don’t know, Facebook is a social networking website that allows people to communicate with their friends and exchange information.  The creator was a Harvard student named Mark Zuckerburg who launched the site in 2004.  The intention of the site was to create a webspace that college students could use to network and socialize in a private setting on the web. 

As of October 2007, the website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 42 million active members worldwide and expects to pass 60 million users by the end of the year (also from non-collegiate networks).

Because of this tremendous popularity that Facebook has garnered, Google has answered with its OpenSocial strategy of networking.  This method of networking creates a common social platform where users can communicate in a public manner where as Facebook uses a private setting. 

Take your pick which you prefer, but anytime you can raise the eyebrows of Google you must be doing something right.  Google feels threatened because Facebook is tapping into an area of advertising that Google has yet to dominate and that is the social networking arena.  Facebook has entrenched itself with the 18 - 30 year olds who are quickly entering the work force and are “professional” net users.  Google cannot miss out on this opportunity but since Facebook is a private atmosphere Google’s open searches are not allowed into the Facebook domain. 

It will be interesting to see how Google continues to rebut the efforts of Facebook, because as we know Google is God.