Who Defriended Google?
February 24, 2011
Did Facebook defriend Google? Did Google defriend Facebook? With Xooglers making up about 20 percent of the Facebook staff, the questions are not innocuous. The fate of Google’s new social play may hang in the balance. What are friends for?
Meow.
There’s something catty about how Google has snubbed Facebook in the latest iteration of Google Social. The official blog post to announce the new improvements says not one word about Facebook, the elephant in the room. In “Analysis: Google Social Search Is All About Blocking Facebook/Twitter Search” Tom Foremski’s take is that this
“Google move is better understood as a blocking measure to stop people from asking their social network directly. “
Will it work? Let’s think about it.
Google Social has been around since 2009, but these latest improvements take results that were at the bottom of the screen and place them high up in the search results, as well as adding notes for links your connections have shared, and expanded the ways you can connect your accounts. Google, of course, always tries to act like it’s taking the high road when it comes to Facebook, stressing that Facebook is a closed system while Google is as open and free as the air we breathe. Personally, I think public data is overrated and I think many other people do too. Why else is there a huge backlash every time Facebook tries to sneak in more openness to its users’ profiles?
What happens when the big dogs set up a pack without a little dog? Answer: Bowling alone.
When I look at Google Social, I have to ask myself if people would choose this over Facebook. Facebook, of course, has momentum on its side since nearly everyone and his grandmother is on Facebook already and accessing it frequently. Another question is how can Google know whose opinion I actually care about when giving me search results?
Particularly since whose opinion I actually care about depends on the topic. Also, for most Google searches, I don’t care what any of my “friends” think and I wouldn’t want to muddy the waters with their opinions. Why not just have a social tab on the side instead of cluttering up search results? It seems to me that this kind of result list dilutes the search while still not providing the satisfaction of a pure social experience. To me, Google Social doesn’t so much seem like chocolate sprinkles on the cake as much as chocolate sprinkles on the steak and baked potato.
The whole issue also provokes the question: Why not include public Facebook content? Many people have part or all of their profiles wide open and excluding this content gives misleading results. Making including Facebook data an either/or proposition just underscores the pettiness of the Google/Facebook catfight. Let’s contrast Google Social with Bing. The new Bing Bar puts Facebook right on the toolbar. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em seems a much healthier attitude and better than re-inventing the wheel when there’s already a perfectly good wheel.
Of course, the ultimate question is always: Where is the money? Google’s ads become more valuable the larger market share they can claim. Will this increase Google’s share? Maybe people like chocolate sprinkles on their steak and potatoes more than they realize, then again, I suspect not.
Alice Wasielewski, February 24, 2011
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[…] Who Defriended Google? Beyond Search: There’s something catty about how Google has snubbed Facebook in the latest iteration of Google Social. The official blog post to announce the new improvements says not one word about Facebook, the elephant in the room. […]