Google and Facebook in Cold War

Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site has caused Google several sleepless nights. Do a search on Google and you will realize that most opinions favor Facebook taking over the digital world. Even social media thought-leader, Brian Solis thinks the same.

Today, ‘social’ is the way to go. Facebook is strongly believed to be able to challenge Google on every front – Facebook email vs Gmail, Facebook group vs Google group, Facebook social search vs Google search and Facebook + Microsoft office vs Google docs… the list goes on…

Apparently, Facebook is Google’s most feared rival. The threat intensifies when Facebook has recently asked if users would like to set Facebook.com as their homepage. That simple move would reduce Google’s traffic by millions. It clearly signals Facebook’s intention to take over Google as the world’s most visited site.

In this post, we’ll discuss: (1) Facebook in brief, (2) Google in brief, (3) why social isn’t necessarily the most important element in a product, (4) why search is the key factor in this rivalry, and (5) the existing cold war between Google and Facebook.

Facebook the Great

Facebook is a great product; there is no doubt about it. With over 600 million users, it can be anything it wants to be. Any new feature introduced by Facebook is easily adopted by millions of users (say a mere 10 percent adoption rate would translate to 60 million users). With such high adoption rate, Facebook could quickly overtake Google’s products in terms of users. But that is just what we see on the surface. We also have to note that not every product can be integrated into Facebook. Only “social” products like videos, photos, places and games are in line with Facebook’s long-term vision.

Google the Great

After overtaking Yahoo, Google has been the leading Internet giant for the last 5 years. For the simple reason that it has provided quality products coupled with great user experience. Be it Search, Gmail, Google Docs or YouTube, most of us would have at least owned or used one of its products. All you need is one gmail account and you are all set to enjoy Google’s range of products. There is little social element in its products but they still serve their purpose perfectly. We search (“just google it”), read our RSS feeds and check emails with ease. We love them and they have become part of our life. It proves that not every product needs to be social; delivering the benefit is still of utmost important. After all, social media is just one chapter of the web:

“The digital world is exploding and it has so many chapters — it has cloud computing, it has mobile, it does have social, it has searches, it has so many elements. (…) Yes, absolutely it will be part of our strategy; yes it will be embedded in many of our products. But at the same time remember it’s one chapter of an entire book,” said Google’s chief financial officer Patrick Pichette.

Think Quality, Not Just Social

Search is Key

Google and Facebook in Cold War