“Anything Google does, we can do better.” I love this newfound and rapidly rising attitude that Facebook has now acquired. Although Google has the bigger name in the internet world, I love that Facebook, who kind of started out as the “underdog,” is one of the fastest growing internet sites and names in the world. I truly believe that while Google is going nowhere, Facebook surely isn’t either. Facebook has the user’s wants & needs down to an art. Their “social graph” has become something Google really strives to become but I feel it might be a little too late in the game. FAcebook has some of the most personalized information about people just open to the public. Google would love to get some of the personal information pie but hasn’t even begun baking in the kitchen yet. Their goal to “organize the world’s info” is unobtainable at this time, while Facebook already has it! Hobbies, email addresses, real user names, interests, games, Facebook has it. And it will be a huge race to see which internet big shot will get their grubby hands and money on it. Although Google is the bigger name, Facebook is not far behind and will only continue to grow.
I believe the opportunities offered by online business is reaching to a mass audience in a easier, and maybe cheaper and efficient way. By reaching one online, you reach thousands or more. Since it’s a vast network of people on one site, take Facebook for example, you’re making a niche including all it’s users. You’re having access to millions of users, instead of a few here and there. Anyone, meaning Microsoft, who gets to dip into the vast pond of Facebook users, will have no trouble getting plenty to come across their ads or words. By simply tapping into the pool of social sites, you’re tapping into never-ending resources. Endless profiles and members giving and using their personal information while you as a company reap the benefits. Social networking as exploded onto the internet scene in the past 5 years, and I think this is just the beginning. In a world where we all want to have our voices heard, these social sites give us the chance to do that, most of the time for free.
Big shots like Google and Yahoo are now trying to expand their names and reach into your social sites by adding their name to search engines and advertising. They have realized the untapped remarkable numbers of users simply sharing the information they have been craving for us to share for years now. Google’s new Friend Connect, Yahoo’s new Yahoo Chat applications, Flock, and Ning are just a few of the new innovations for closing the gap between search engines and social networking.
“The social networks’ greatest achievement has been to bring humanity into a place that was once cold and technological,” says Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group, a consulting firm. I love this quote!!!! It rings true today and even more so with these big wigs fighting for rights to the sites. All the ways we’re communicating today truly is mass communication. Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and more are keeping people from all ages, races, cultures, and countries together by the click of a mouse, and the big companies definetly want a piece of the action. But will these sites stay around for the long haul, or simply be another trend to disappear? “They need to prove to the world that they are here to stay. They must demonstrate that they are capable of generating the returns that justify the lofty valuations investors have given them. And they need to do all this while also reassuring users that their privacy will not be violated in the pursuit of profit.” These sites are very careful when attaching their names to the names of the profit-seeking companies that some have come to despise. These companies whom are looking to attach their names and money should also be attaching some innovative new thing to bring to the table that will shield their names to the suspecting eye.
“Social networks are more robust than their critics think, though not every site will prosper, and that social-networking technologies are creating considerable benefits for the businesses that embrace them, whatever their size. Lastly, it will contend that this is just the beginning of an exciting new era of global interconnectedness that will spread ideas and innovations around the world faster than ever before.”
