Goose and Maverick Agree on the Facebook Thing

April 26, 2010

The addled goose likes the blog maverick. A farm yard of folks who look at the machinations of 20 somethings and offer a different perspective. I liked “Is Facebook the New Internet and How Soon before Microsoft Tries to Buy It ? I see information that increasingly suggests that Google has to deal with a digital Billy the Kid, the founder of Facebook. The new Billy as I shall reference Mr. Zuckerberg figured out that the big text indexing approach was not where the action was going. Google, and to a certain extend Microsoft, missed this insight. Under the able leadership of the News Corporation, MySpace.com found itself marginalized. Google fumbled with Buzz and Microsoft was sufficiently savvy to take a stake in Facebook and rejig some cloud apps for the Facebook ecosystem.

Now along comes the blog maverick who writes:

Everything that the net was 5 or more years ago, Facebook is today. The interesting thing is that Facebook knows it. Slowly but surely they are extending their tentacles into traditional websites, mobile apps (android/iphone/Ipad) and soon your HDTV .

Let’s assume he is correct.

First, the Google approach is yesterday’s news. The Facebook crowd does text but within the Facebook ecosystem. The idea of Google creating a Facebook seems unnatural to me. Google is not social in the way Facebook is. It will be easier for Facebook to offer finding services and it will be cheaper for Facebook to offer this function.

Second, Facebook may not sell even if the numbers are crazy. The reason is that the new Billy thinks he is the fastest draw in Silicon Valley. The only way to find out is to get into duels, not take the money and retire. Facebook may be the next IBM, Microsoft, or Google. The only way to find out is not to sell out but to go all out. That pedal to the metal approach is what I took away from the f8 info storm.

Third, I heard at lunch yesterday (Friday, April 23, 2010) that Microsoft is now moving into consumer online via Facebook and Google is chasing the enterprise. These outfits are like yin and yang. The new magnetic center seems to be Facebook and Google, so far, has been ineffectual in social and not able to build services with Facebook’s benign indifference.

Bottom-line: the goose and maverick are on the same half acre.

Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2010

Unsponsored post.

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Google, Marketing, Microsoft, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.