4 ms·

From what I've read, Facebook has a completely different vision of search than Google - and possible competitor in a number of areas. They want you to be able t

From what I've read, Facebook has a completely different vision of search than Google - and possible competitor in a number of areas. They want you to be able to query your contacts as you would in "real life". A more humanistic search versus Google's algorithmic one.

jacquesm 17y ago
Yes, but that is just within their own little garden. Google has declared the internet their garden, that's a completely different story. It turns them into a major player instead of into a large niche. If facebook were to die tomorrow I doubt there would be any big disturbances in the force (and twitter wouldn't even be noticed, except for some deflation of some egos). If google would die tomorrow morning the internet as we know it would grind to a halt. Search now drives the majority of traffic, plenty of people don't even know how to properly use the url bar any longer and it won't be long before it becomes optional and the search box is your main avenue to the web.
- alanthonyc 17y ago
  You make a great point about how to intuitively calculate the value of a website. (Although I should say that I believe the sudden disappearance of facebook would be a pretty big deal, just not along the same lines as the disappearance of google would be.)
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
litewulf 17y ago
What you're saying may be/probably is true. But I don't think it does much to detract from my point. Facebook probably wishes they could target ads given all their demographic information. They probably want to be able to help users make decisions by leveraging their social graph, but I think in the here-and-now, and probably for the immediate future, that will not be the case. I think it is silly to constantly worry about what everyone else is doing when it is substantially more fruitful to understand what you yourself should be doing.

jacquesm 17y ago

Yes, but that is just within their own little garden. Google has declared the internet their garden, that's a completely different story. It turns them into a major player instead of into a large niche. If facebook were to die tomorrow I doubt there would be any big disturbances in the force (and twitter wouldn't even be noticed, except for some deflation of some egos). If google would die tomorrow morning the internet as we know it would grind to a halt. Search now drives the majority of traffic, plenty of people don't even know how to properly use the url bar any longer and it won't be long before it becomes optional and the search box is your main avenue to the web.

alanthonyc 17y ago
You make a great point about how to intuitively calculate the value of a website. (Although I should say that I believe the sudden disappearance of facebook would be a pretty big deal, just not along the same lines as the disappearance of google would be.)
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

litewulf 17y ago

What you're saying may be/probably is true. But I don't think it does much to detract from my point. Facebook probably wishes they could target ads given all their demographic information. They probably want to be able to help users make decisions by leveraging their social graph, but I think in the here-and-now, and probably for the immediate future, that will not be the case. I think it is silly to constantly worry about what everyone else is doing when it is substantially more fruitful to understand what you yourself should be doing.