How I Know Facebook Faces Challenges
August 6, 2012
The big tip off is the story in USA Today, “4 Reasons Investors Don’t Like Facebook.” The story appeared in the dead tree edition on August 2, 2012. Another clue is the clumsy handling of Facebook developers. This fumble was given that “real” journalism twist in “Schadenfreude, Anyone? In Wake of Facebook Bullying Claims, Google+ Chief Vic Gundotra Woos Developers.” In case you don’t remember, schadenfreude suggests enjoying another’s discomfort. But for me, the bright yellow flashing light is the Barron’s story “UBS Hit by Facebook Loss; Vows Legal Action Against Nasdaq.” Definitely not a good thing when cousins shoot at one another with real bullets.
Can Facebook get its act together? My hunch is that social media push back is likely to take a toll on Facebook and probably some other social media companies. When one is sitting in the dorm without much desire to study coefficients of friction, fiddling with Facebook is a nifty distraction. Working as an intern allows some time to connect with friends. However, once one realizes that time is a scarce resource, Facebook and other social media lovers may start looking for a new hook up.
What I find fascinating is that Google and Microsoft Bing don’t want to accept that social media may not be the innovation to ignite these firms’ online revenues. Google has suggested that Google Plus is the new Google. Microsoft is a me-too outfit, so social content is getting attention in Redmond. What happens when social drops to a utility function?
The search giants are going to have to focus on relevance and finding high value content. Facebook’s challenges, therefore, are going to be on deck to cause headaches for the search services in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, August 6, 2012
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