Amazon and Its New BFF, Facebook

August 4, 2010

Microsoft expressed its love for Facebook with an investment of $240 million in late 2007. That is public information. Less well known is the on-again, off-again relationship between Amazon and Microsoft. Cross town rivals, both companies eye one another’s database innovations, business methods, and products.

Amazon’s interest in Facebook seems to be rising. “Amazon Now Taps Into Facebook for Social Product Recommendations”, if on the money, reported that cloud-computing giant Amazon has added a nifty Facebook feature. Now you can integrate Facebook into your personal Amazon recommendations.

To use the feature, navigate to your Amazon recommendations. Amazon uses Facebook Connect to provide you with social recommendations based on information in your Facebook profile.

After you activate this feature, Amazon will display a dedicated page within the recommendations section of your Amazon account. You will see which of your friends also like the same books, bands, videos, and other media.

Too much big brother? Is Amazon nosing into Microsoft’s territory? Is Amazon working with Microsoft on other social integration services? Something is up. We don’t know what, but the move is interesting.

Stephen E Arnold, August 4, 2010

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Facebook, Microsoft, News, Social

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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.