3 ms·

Are you building for Google or Facebook?

21 points by teej 17y ago

ekiru 17y ago
I don't understand how the author concludes from the article he or she links( http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_facebook_social_networking_search.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_facebook_social_... ) that Facebook exceeded all of Google's properties in traffic in December. That article says that peak social networking traffic exceeded peak search traffic in that month. It then goes on to point out that even that is questionable, given that the traffic figures count Youtube as social networking.
- btilly 17y ago
  I agree bad reasoning. Still the point is good that people have put less attention into optimizing websites for Facebook, so getting traction there may be an easier target than Google. Therefore that may provide better value for effort.
  - jfarmer 17y ago
    This is less true every day. Facebook-specific companies like Zynga, Playdom, etc. have huge ad spends on Facebook. Facebook ads are also valuable for highly localized companies like Groupon, because you get fine-grained demographic control. The CPC of Facebook ads has probably risen by 50-60% over the last year, and it's only going up.
Mc_Big_G 17y ago
I couldn't agree more on Adwords vs Facebook ads based on my experience using both. The targeting on FB is fantastic and you can really play with it to get maximum CTR.
awa 17y ago
The article seems a little biased to me: For Google: Revenue - Optionally opt for Google checkout, which has been a mediocre product so far. For Facebook: Revenue - Optionally opt for Facebook payments. Early, but we’ve seen good results in their alpha and their team has been very responsive.
patio11 17y ago
This was really brought home when a fellow entrepreneur mentioned the other day that Google makes it near impossible for startups to enter a category in SEO. I have to chime in, because this is just plausible enough to be dangerous without actually being true. Incumbents have several built-in advantages, however, that doesn't mean startups can't compete with them. Practical examples are using your vastly superior access to the linkerati (if you don't know what this word means, go read SEOMoz, it is probably the most-important-least-obvious thing about SEO I could name), willingness to experiment rapidly, and lack of structural impediments to engaging at scale.

21 points by teej 17y ago

ekiru 17y ago

I don't understand how the author concludes from the article he or she links( http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_facebook_social_networking_search.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_facebook_social_... ) that Facebook exceeded all of Google's properties in traffic in December. That article says that peak social networking traffic exceeded peak search traffic in that month. It then goes on to point out that even that is questionable, given that the traffic figures count Youtube as social networking.

btilly 17y ago
I agree bad reasoning. Still the point is good that people have put less attention into optimizing websites for Facebook, so getting traction there may be an easier target than Google. Therefore that may provide better value for effort.
- jfarmer 17y ago
  This is less true every day. Facebook-specific companies like Zynga, Playdom, etc. have huge ad spends on Facebook. Facebook ads are also valuable for highly localized companies like Groupon, because you get fine-grained demographic control. The CPC of Facebook ads has probably risen by 50-60% over the last year, and it's only going up.

Mc_Big_G 17y ago

I couldn't agree more on Adwords vs Facebook ads based on my experience using both. The targeting on FB is fantastic and you can really play with it to get maximum CTR.

awa 17y ago

The article seems a little biased to me: For Google: Revenue - Optionally opt for Google checkout, which has been a mediocre product so far. For Facebook: Revenue - Optionally opt for Facebook payments. Early, but we’ve seen good results in their alpha and their team has been very responsive.

patio11 17y ago

This was really brought home when a fellow entrepreneur mentioned the other day that Google makes it near impossible for startups to enter a category in SEO. I have to chime in, because this is just plausible enough to be dangerous without actually being true. Incumbents have several built-in advantages, however, that doesn't mean startups can't compete with them. Practical examples are using your vastly superior access to the linkerati (if you don't know what this word means, go read SEOMoz, it is probably the most-important-least-obvious thing about SEO I could name), willingness to experiment rapidly, and lack of structural impediments to engaging at scale.