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Facebook the Devourer

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Re: Facebook the Devourer

#91

Post by ralfd »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #49
notatoad wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has a search algorithm that outperforms any other. Their value proposition is that they can help you find what you are looking for better than their competitors can. Amazon has a vast network of suppliers and infrastructure. Their value proposition is that they can provide better selection and delivery than their competition. In both cases, the value is provided by the company. Facebook is a website that lets…

Google has almost no lock-in at all for their main economic engine, search. If a notably better competitor comes along tomorrow, within a year the whole money empire could crumble. People would just go to the new place, one at a time. Facebook has TREMENDOUS lock-in. For any new place to have value, it's got to have the majority of the people Facebook has change over in a very short timeframe. The problem with techni…

I want to argue that the lock-in for Google is pretty huge.

Consider this web ad from three days ago from Microsoft:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWuOJXP-R4

It makes the claim that in blind tests people choose Bing to Google nearly 2:1. Which is a pretty bold and substantial claim. Question: Do you believe that? Does this new info make you want to try it and set bing even one week as your default search engine? Do you even care? (Notice also that I linked to the bing account on Youtube, a subsidiary of Google, and the chances are high that you are either browsing with Chrome or use Safari/Firefox which use Google as default search.)

Re: Facebook the Devourer

#92

Post by chris_wot »

thewarrior wrote: post #75
tambourine_man wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we stop this already? No we can't. Imagine yourself going back to the 80s and explaining the Web to someone. It's as close to utopia as you can get. Most people probably wouldn't believe it. But it's real, it's here and it's amazing. I'd argue that Facebook undermines a lot of what makes the Web great. And since it's being confused with the Web itself, by being so popular and pervasively devouring, it could be a…

As a young internet user I would like to know what this utopia was like ..

Two things: read The Cookoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll, and secondly grab a copy of Gopherspace (see this article here: http://boingboing.net/2010/04/29/all-of-gopherspace-a.html)

Re: Facebook the Devourer

#94

Post by xyzzyz »

ralfd wrote: post #91
waterlesscloud wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has almost no lock-in at all for their main economic engine, search. If a notably better competitor comes along tomorrow, within a year the whole money empire could crumble. People would just go to the new place, one at a time. Facebook has TREMENDOUS lock-in. For any new place to have value, it's got to have the majority of the people Facebook has change over in a very short timeframe. The problem with techni…

I want to argue that the lock-in for Google is pretty huge. Consider this web ad from three days ago from Microsoft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWuOJXP-R4 It makes the claim that in blind tests people choose Bing to Google nearly 2:1. Which is a pretty bold and substantial claim. Question: Do you believe that? Does this new info make you want to try it and set bing even one week as your default search engine? Do…

I was working at Google when this Bing campaign went live. People didn't believe this, so they spent some money on Mechanial Turk, so that people do the "Bing challenge" and report results. I recommend doing that, if you have some disposable money.

I'd say, though, that the ads network is the bigger lock-in for Google, because it's vastly superior than alternativea.

Re: Facebook the Devourer

#95

Post by antirez »

Think at the problem of communities like HN: as more users are arriving the quality of submissions and comments inevitably starts to be impacted.

Now think at Facebook as this exact process on steroids. Facebook is different because almost all the other sites on the internet where there is production of user-generated content is frequented by the elite of the internet users.

Facebook is different, a big percentage of facebook users are not really internet literate, they think the internet is confined into facebook, a few common sites they visit, plus searching with google when needed. They don't have a blog, don't write into forums, don't know reddit, they don't even know how to properly use a search engine.

So the quality of Facebook reflects a lot the average quality of their users, and with 1 billion users this quality is not exactly very high. Sorry, average people may be good at parenting, at helping you, at getting their work done, but the process of content production is something the belongs to an elite. Most people will just share pictures, write non-sensical status messages, and so forth.

Re: Facebook the Devourer

#96

Post by waterlesscloud »

ralfd wrote: post #91
waterlesscloud wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has almost no lock-in at all for their main economic engine, search. If a notably better competitor comes along tomorrow, within a year the whole money empire could crumble. People would just go to the new place, one at a time. Facebook has TREMENDOUS lock-in. For any new place to have value, it's got to have the majority of the people Facebook has change over in a very short timeframe. The problem with techni…

I want to argue that the lock-in for Google is pretty huge. Consider this web ad from three days ago from Microsoft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWuOJXP-R4 It makes the claim that in blind tests people choose Bing to Google nearly 2:1. Which is a pretty bold and substantial claim. Question: Do you believe that? Does this new info make you want to try it and set bing even one week as your default search engine? Do…

Bing may be marginally better than Google. It's certainly possible that it is.

But marginally better doesn't matter much, which is why I was careful to say "notably" better.

Search now is nothing like what it will be in a decade, and someone is going to make that leap. Might be Google, might not.

What happens when someone makes that quantum leap in delivering the information you want?

If it's not Google, the ad network disintegrates at least as fast as the search users vanish.

I would argue that Youtube has the most lock-in of any Google product, with Gmail second. Neither is invulnerable, but Youtube in particular will be hard to pull folks away from. Moving video around is tedious, and people largely just won't do it.

Re: Facebook the Devourer

#97

Post by ralfd »

xyzzyz wrote: post #94
ralfd wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to argue that the lock-in for Google is pretty huge. Consider this web ad from three days ago from Microsoft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWuOJXP-R4 It makes the claim that in blind tests people choose Bing to Google nearly 2:1. Which is a pretty bold and substantial claim. Question: Do you believe that? Does this new info make you want to try it and set bing even one week as your default search engine? Do…

I was working at Google when this Bing campaign went live. People didn't believe this, so they spent some money on Mechanial Turk, so that people do the "Bing challenge" and report results. I recommend doing that, if you have some disposable money. I'd say, though, that the ads network is the bigger lock-in for Google, because it's vastly superior than alternativea.

Uh, nice. What was the result of the Turk people?

Re: Facebook the Devourer

#98

Post by gogetter »

lmm wrote: post #90
gogetter wrote: post #82

Another top comment that makes no sense. Alas, karma does not necessarily correlate with intelligence. The point of the blog post is clear. There are other methods to do what people, such as middle-aged ones, now use Facebook for: sharing photos and text blurbs. Knowing this, Facebook is pretty silly since you're posting all your private stuff on some kid's website. You do not know him and he doesn't know you. To him…

Ease up on the hate pal. You know why people share these things by posting them on someone else's website? Because it's orders of magnitude easier than the alternatives. It lets millions of people do something valuable they otherwise couldn't , not because it would be technically impossible for them to do it but because they don't have the skills. That's the value facebook provides.

Hate? I'm not the one who called users "Dumb fucks."

If what you say is true (and I believe it is), then the solution is not FB but better skills, i.e. education.

True value would be teaching people the skills they need so they do not have to subject themselves to someone like Zuckerberg and a "company" like FB.

While you may see altenatives as difficult, that is only your opinion. It is not fact. Stop making assumptions about what users can and cannot do. Stop tricking them like FB does. Let's teach them.

Let's deliver real value.

Re: Facebook the Devourer

#99

Post by RandallBrown »

lmm wrote: post #84
RandallBrown wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thousands of pictures of my life all through college and the years since have immense value to me.

People like collecting such things (and I'm no exception), but how often do you go back and actually look at them?

A couple times a month maybe? I know when the timeline feature first debuted I spent a lot of time looking way back in time.

Re: Facebook the Devourer

#100

Post by flocial »

Karunamon wrote: post #40
flocial wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does Google and Facebook compete directly? Also, why does working for a creative agency that does occasional work for Google merit disclosure?

Err.. you are aware of Google+ yes?

I feel that's a bit like saying a heavyweight boxer and a lightweight boxer are competitors
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