Why Google doesn't 'like' Facebook
An interesting follow up article relating to the 'like' button on Facebook and what they look to do to monetize 'likes' and Google's countered with '+1.' I read an interesting article the other day about Google and how Google+ doesn't care if you ever comeback after you sign up for Google+ because it links your interests to your search results making stronger data than Facebook. This will be an interesting battle for search and analytic domination. I have always seen 'likes' as a overly clicked and kind of useless. Everyone clicks the 'like' button with no regard to if they actually care strongly or not. People click 'like' on comments that mean nothing and on pictures that are of drunk friends. That seems like useless data. It seems like the 'like' feature will have a lot of noise that will need to be weighted out of everyone's analytical analysis.
Do you think 'likes' can be monetized?
Do you think 'likes' are good data?
Do you think Facebook can challenge Google?
Aaron, that was a great article! I'm on Facebook and I ocassionally "like" things but based on this article I think that "liking" something on FaceBook means something different than the intent that Google is profitting from. People randomly "like" things on facebook and from my experience, it doesn't seem to link common searches or follow what you "like" nearly as well as Google. FaceBook is a challenge because of all the features but because Google is a search engine and a good one at that, I don't think they have too much to worry about. The question Google might need to think about is where will FaceBook go next? Most sites link to FaceBook so they get ad content that way. FaceBook's growth should be interesting over the next few years.
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ReplyDeleteDid you hear on NPR the other day a report that marketers can hire sleazy ad agencies to buy blocks of "likes" for a price? I was surprised to hear this.
ReplyDeleteOne funny example they gave was for a country music singer in Nashville who bought a block of likes. When you dig into who is liking her fan page, 95% of the people are in Cairo, Egypt!
I found the transcript on their site:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/05/16/152736671/this-guy-will-sell-you-sell-you-1-000-facebook-likes