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The more I think about this, the less I lump Google and Facebook together when I talk about privacy. Maybe it's just because I don't use Facebook all that much,

The more I think about this, the less I lump Google and Facebook together when I talk about privacy. Maybe it's just because I don't use Facebook all that much, but I don't consider them to be exactly equal, and suggesting that everyone not use both at the same time no longer works for me. I don't disagree with some or even much of what's on this site, but Google has built some amazing things that are widely used. I can't think of much to say about Facebook in that way. Google has mail and docs and maps and all the chat things and analytics and so on. Really powerful impressive things that are really useful to many people, and certainly useful for Google in obvious ways. Facebook has... Facebook. Maybe I'm missing other things that it does?

eindiran 6y ago
The big ones that leap out (at least to me) are WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. But there are a few others that control less of their respective markets: Oculus, Giphy, React, Libra.
- blakesterz 6y ago
  Ah, of course, Facebook does indeed have other tools. I don't think of those because I never use them. Thanks for reminding me that like Google, Facebook has a bunch of other things people love to use.
skinnymuch 6y ago
Adding this because the more I think about it, the more Amazon is used possibly far more by myself and my friends. Amazon’s own as network is on pace possibly to be third with a huge gap after the big two. Amazon has other ambitions as well. Shouldn’t we try to curb usage before things get too bad? I have always thought in my mind for my self I need to lessen Google in my life and then Amazon. As I explain below FB isn’t an issue for me personally though of course for others it is. — To the point of FB vs Google: Facebook has more for sure and I bring up the 3 of their big 4 properties below. But point stands to me. I block major FB domains and sub domains along with FB and it’s properties on my desktop and jailbroken iPad (hosts file) where I spend the majority of my time. I think I don’t block certain google things because it gets hard to navigate with certain sub domains of theirs blocked if you’re not on a crusade which I’m not. Also their CDN is pretty widely used for fonts scripts etc. I do have occasional use of FB Messenger, Whatsapp, and IG which all happen on my iPhone. So they are getting more stuff prob than I think. i haven’t kept up with numbers as recently but IG has ~1.2B users, FBM has ~1.5B, Whatsapp a bit more than that. FB with 2.2B or so. I think those are monthly active users. With tons of overlaps of course. I am assuming Facebook won’t give their number of unique people overall using their services as people here and elsewhere would decry that as a huge invasion even though we know they know some estimate :p.
- blakesterz 6y ago
  Interesting point on Amazon, I bet you're right, I use Amazon extensively.
  - skinnymuch 6y ago
    Thanks. I was rabbit holing procrastinating yesterday. Just look at how long the OP post of mine is hah. But I am wondering how Amazon is surging to a distant 3rd place for ads. I think one reason might be that usually Microsoft (which I would think is mostly MSN, any other major site they own, and Bing) and LinkedIn are separated? I know Amazon has sponsored items in multiple places around Amazon.com. Amazon is big enough that those placements alone could put them as the distant third. But I wonder if they do anything outside that. Different note. Yahoo failed miserably at trying to compete with Google Adsense. I’m a bit surprised there’s never been a team up effort among some combo of the remaining players, or Facebook themselves trying to go at it. Adsense makes much less money than AdWords. Not sure how much less it does on top of splitting the money with the websites, but Facebook has enough ads and tech most likely. Facebook’s rep is pretty bad compared to other top tech companies, but Adsense has grumbling going on and Amazon pulled a lot of their affiliate stuff with covid19 giving them more orders than they can deal with. This would be a great time for Facebook or some combo like Facebook and Microsoft making competitors to major Google services. Namely Adsense and Analytics. Though Analytics probably isn’t worth it for Microsoft since user data isn’t as prized for them and the anti-Facebook sentiment amongst vocal Internet crowd could be enough to not make even attempting that worth it. Even though I have a hard time seeing how the current, what, 90% market share Google Analytics and 80%+ Adsense have for their markets would be any worse off with an equally user privacy offensive company (FB) joining the fray and taking 1/4 or so of the market over time. At the very least an FB[/Msft] Adsense alternative would immediately be a possible boon for people banned from Adsense or shaken up by Adsense issues. And Amazon affiliate things never coming back to how they were. Welp. Shit. This is super long too

eindiran 6y ago

The big ones that leap out (at least to me) are WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. But there are a few others that control less of their respective markets: Oculus, Giphy, React, Libra.

blakesterz 6y ago
Ah, of course, Facebook does indeed have other tools. I don't think of those because I never use them. Thanks for reminding me that like Google, Facebook has a bunch of other things people love to use.

skinnymuch 6y ago

Adding this because the more I think about it, the more Amazon is used possibly far more by myself and my friends. Amazon’s own as network is on pace possibly to be third with a huge gap after the big two. Amazon has other ambitions as well. Shouldn’t we try to curb usage before things get too bad? I have always thought in my mind for my self I need to lessen Google in my life and then Amazon. As I explain below FB isn’t an issue for me personally though of course for others it is. — To the point of FB vs Google: Facebook has more for sure and I bring up the 3 of their big 4 properties below. But point stands to me. I block major FB domains and sub domains along with FB and it’s properties on my desktop and jailbroken iPad (hosts file) where I spend the majority of my time. I think I don’t block certain google things because it gets hard to navigate with certain sub domains of theirs blocked if you’re not on a crusade which I’m not. Also their CDN is pretty widely used for fonts scripts etc. I do have occasional use of FB Messenger, Whatsapp, and IG which all happen on my iPhone. So they are getting more stuff prob than I think. i haven’t kept up with numbers as recently but IG has ~1.2B users, FBM has ~1.5B, Whatsapp a bit more than that. FB with 2.2B or so. I think those are monthly active users. With tons of overlaps of course. I am assuming Facebook won’t give their number of unique people overall using their services as people here and elsewhere would decry that as a huge invasion even though we know they know some estimate :p.

blakesterz 6y ago
Interesting point on Amazon, I bet you're right, I use Amazon extensively.
- skinnymuch 6y ago
  Thanks. I was rabbit holing procrastinating yesterday. Just look at how long the OP post of mine is hah. But I am wondering how Amazon is surging to a distant 3rd place for ads. I think one reason might be that usually Microsoft (which I would think is mostly MSN, any other major site they own, and Bing) and LinkedIn are separated? I know Amazon has sponsored items in multiple places around Amazon.com. Amazon is big enough that those placements alone could put them as the distant third. But I wonder if they do anything outside that. Different note. Yahoo failed miserably at trying to compete with Google Adsense. I’m a bit surprised there’s never been a team up effort among some combo of the remaining players, or Facebook themselves trying to go at it. Adsense makes much less money than AdWords. Not sure how much less it does on top of splitting the money with the websites, but Facebook has enough ads and tech most likely. Facebook’s rep is pretty bad compared to other top tech companies, but Adsense has grumbling going on and Amazon pulled a lot of their affiliate stuff with covid19 giving them more orders than they can deal with. This would be a great time for Facebook or some combo like Facebook and Microsoft making competitors to major Google services. Namely Adsense and Analytics. Though Analytics probably isn’t worth it for Microsoft since user data isn’t as prized for them and the anti-Facebook sentiment amongst vocal Internet crowd could be enough to not make even attempting that worth it. Even though I have a hard time seeing how the current, what, 90% market share Google Analytics and 80%+ Adsense have for their markets would be any worse off with an equally user privacy offensive company (FB) joining the fray and taking 1/4 or so of the market over time. At the very least an FB[/Msft] Adsense alternative would immediately be a possible boon for people banned from Adsense or shaken up by Adsense issues. And Amazon affiliate things never coming back to how they were. Welp. Shit. This is super long too