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They're not at war from a user-facing product sense, but they are completely at war from an advertising and brand promotion standpoint. Each wants to make thei

by onedev 14y ago

They're not at war from a user-facing product sense, but they are completely at war from an advertising and brand promotion standpoint. Each wants to make their own social platform more attractive for advertisers. Things like this affect that notion. But I agree in that they certainly are being more aggressive towards each other.

tomasien 14y ago
They're more likely to help each other than hurt each other, but I think that's hard to see. They're competition is other advertising media, not each other. Their ads are getting them profitable, but if either ever hits on an ad model for social that works as well as adwords does for search, the other will copy it and they'll both benefit.
- onedev 14y ago
  Hm, interesting perspective. Out of curiosity what other media do you think is significantly competing with them? I mean besides Google.
  - tomasien 14y ago
    I don't think Google is really competing with them, Google wins because they make TONS of money on ads when people are clearly actively trying to buy something. Those ads cost tons of money if you ever run such a campaign you'll see it. They're competing with TV I think more than anything, the sort of "brand recognition" advertising that is more nebulous and hard to measure. "My friend likes this brand" may annoy you, but it means something to me. When I've seen that in Facebook ads, I remember it. It may be years before that matters to my purchases, but that's how brands invest in TV advertising now, and if they can figure out to objectively show that Facebook advertising does that better, their ad spends will explode. It's only that, because TV was the ONLY place for this for so long and therefore brands were able to measure the effect of this advertising other time, that TV ads were able to be proven to work, even for ads not directed at people literally looking to buy RIGHT NOW. Internet ads have had a problem proving their ROI in this regard, but if Facebook or Twitter figure this out, it's going to be huge.
    - OGinparadise 14y ago
      I don't think Google is really competing with them, Google wins because they make TONS of money on ads when people are clearly actively trying to buy something. Those ads cost tons of money if you ever run such a campaign you'll see it. OK, but even if FB takes 10% from Google it's enough to rain on their parade. I can see FB do a decent SE with Bing as backfill for what it cannot provide. If the search engine is decent (bing is OK for most people) and they emphasize the "Search" button, I can see a % of people not going to another site to search. P.S. Most of the money Google makes is probably by making ads similar to content, hoping enough users can't tell. But we have no consumer protection in USA.

by onedev 14y ago

tomasien 14y ago

They're more likely to help each other than hurt each other, but I think that's hard to see. They're competition is other advertising media, not each other. Their ads are getting them profitable, but if either ever hits on an ad model for social that works as well as adwords does for search, the other will copy it and they'll both benefit.

onedev 14y ago
Hm, interesting perspective. Out of curiosity what other media do you think is significantly competing with them? I mean besides Google.
- tomasien 14y ago
  I don't think Google is really competing with them, Google wins because they make TONS of money on ads when people are clearly actively trying to buy something. Those ads cost tons of money if you ever run such a campaign you'll see it. They're competing with TV I think more than anything, the sort of "brand recognition" advertising that is more nebulous and hard to measure. "My friend likes this brand" may annoy you, but it means something to me. When I've seen that in Facebook ads, I remember it. It may be years before that matters to my purchases, but that's how brands invest in TV advertising now, and if they can figure out to objectively show that Facebook advertising does that better, their ad spends will explode. It's only that, because TV was the ONLY place for this for so long and therefore brands were able to measure the effect of this advertising other time, that TV ads were able to be proven to work, even for ads not directed at people literally looking to buy RIGHT NOW. Internet ads have had a problem proving their ROI in this regard, but if Facebook or Twitter figure this out, it's going to be huge.
  - OGinparadise 14y ago
    I don't think Google is really competing with them, Google wins because they make TONS of money on ads when people are clearly actively trying to buy something. Those ads cost tons of money if you ever run such a campaign you'll see it. OK, but even if FB takes 10% from Google it's enough to rain on their parade. I can see FB do a decent SE with Bing as backfill for what it cannot provide. If the search engine is decent (bing is OK for most people) and they emphasize the "Search" button, I can see a % of people not going to another site to search. P.S. Most of the money Google makes is probably by making ads similar to content, hoping enough users can't tell. But we have no consumer protection in USA.