To Facebook or To Google? The Internet Domination

With my last post, I kinda left you all hanging, cause I didn't really explain 'what' I had in mind when I said this year was going to be different, even tho I said this year is going to be different. This is what I had in mind, Facebook. What better may to start and demonstrate enthusiasm for 2011 with news that 500 million dollars has been invested by Goldman Sachs and Co. into what was in early 2005 the extension of a doom-room project. Facebook, is now an Internet giant, with over 550 million users, [valued at $50 billion] and having grown through the recession [lets face it, Facebook is a bit like beer, it makes for good depression relief] and weathered it without a scratch, it would seem Facebook has done more growing than anyone anticipated [except for some very intelligent investors and particulars, like Microsoft] who are riding this boat that doesn't seem to want to take a break [expected to hit a billion users 2012]. That's right, Facebook isn't going away despite a recent group on Facebook suggesting that is it shutting down next month [pst, as if, Goldman has stopped selling shares of the company because they are going like hot cakes] but in any case, I wanted to talk a little bit about Facebook, and its growing enemy Google, who is really dominating the Internet?

Facebook, apparently. According a traffic tally for 2010, Facebook is now the most viewed website on the Internet, trumping the search engine Google. But when it comes to Internet companies, or any company for that matter, traffic is one thing, profit is another. Facebook recently had it leaked by someone [Facebook doesn't have to report its revenue or profit, except to its small amount of investors, only companies registered on the exchange with shares that anyone can own have to do that] of apparently $500 million in revenue, which isn't bad, but still doesn't beat Google, which has its revenue in the billions. Part of this comes down to the quantity of ads that Google owns, where all this revenue gets made, any of these ads can easily be put up on a site [if you take a look to your right, you might have noticed that Amazon, and Google are paying the bills, not that I suspect I am going to make much [I'm not about to buy a condo in the Caribbean]. I have read estimates that suggest that over 60 to 70 percent of all Internet ads are Google. And when you take into mind all the websites we all regularly go to that Google owns, like Youtube, and others like Double Click and Admob, not to mention Google's own pet projects like Gmail and Google maps and its search engine, when you consider all the ads that come with it, this adds up [ching, ching]. Profits are an important thing that makes Google ahead [money talks, you know, enough said, its nice to know someone is going to get a condo in the Caribbean]. And with all Google is doing it certainly isn't just a search engine anymore, but isn't Facebook just a social network?

"Dear Facebook, Just wait, one day they'll abandon you as well. Sincerely, Myspace" is another page I've noticed on Facebook not just for its message, but also for its popularity, with over 200 thousand fans. Which raises an important question for all those who keep talking about Facebook like they are the next big thing, we have ditched a social network before, why not again? I remember good old Bebo, which I had for a while [till viruses took it over] and I remember Myspace too, until I realized it was just all about the music [kinda like that awkwardness, when you attempt to pick up a girl by dissing a band, to find out its her favourite]. Some other social networks didn't get off the ground [or at least not in the way the wanted] like Friendster that got so full of 'fakesters' that everyone got over it [not to mention it being incredibly slow just when it was getting off the ground] or Orkut [Google's pet] which got dominated by Brazilians and some Indians, and no American wanted to touch. But really, there are reasons why Facebook will survive, even though everyone says they would 'drop their Facebook tommorow' we all know that you love your friends, and your pictures [every time someone de-activates their Facebook, you all know you go 'hey, where are my pictures?'] so admit it, you're not going anywhere in a hurry [unless you have a reason]. This is where it all comes down to the logic that Facebook has been beating into investors and anyone else who will listen for a while, Facebook isn't just cool, its a utility to be used, that people cannot stop using [my dad has a Facebook, and he is old as, so yeah I think we can rule out Facebook being just cool. Who cares, besides, who really knows who is joining, you only get to see your selected friends]. Facebook also cares about your privacy [come on, they know they don't have 9 lives when it comes to our data and potentially doing stuff we don't like with it].

Growth is a key reason for why Facebook isn't going down the toilet in a new 'Internet bust' and as long as Facebook can maintain those it has, it will grow and even take over the role that other social networks play, even in those parts of the world that currently have their own social networks. The more people are on Facebook, the more it will take hold, cause people will always have a friend who isn't to motivate to take up a profile [and come on, Goldman Sachs must know something to want to invest so much, right?]. But whether Facebook can make enough revenue to keep investors happy, remains to be seen. I mean, Facebook clearly has ads, but clicked on any recently? Its easy to be on Facebook and not notice they are even there [its what makes Facebook so great, and why everyone thought they were serious when a rumour went around that they were going to start charging for the service, remember that?]. Growth is however the backbone behind who will dominate [and continue to dominate the Internet] because both Facebook and Google have their waves: Facebook it's popularity and members, and Google its venture companies and successful sites it continues to buy [and ching ching]. As long as we don't see the two combined [Faceboogled? try saying that one ten times really fast] it really comes down to who's wave is bigger, the companies owned by Google or the people joining and marketing with Facebook [face-pooed-on, face-pooed-on, face-pooed-on]. Because Facebook might just be a social network, but when your the next big thing, that's all you need to be.

The Phoenix of 2011 or just more 'Dirty Words'?

Since this is my first blog post for 2011, I thought i was begin this year with a bang. So whilst so many other bloggers, and columnists are trying to sum up last year, I want to instead focus your attention where it should rest, on trying to sum in the next. To tell you the truth i found it difficult to find columns on the 'new year' not only because im sure there are alot of new people out enjoying it, but also because everyone else whom was writting columns or blogs seemed to be trying to just sum up the year just gone in as small a space as possible [is 2011 really just an interlude until the world ends? cause it seems like 2010 was]. But in any case, i did find an editiorial from the New York Times called A New Year. I wish the editiorial was authored, so i could give the writter some credit. She spends alot of the article talking about the year to come, suggesting a squabble between forces of the prospects for a new year, where we take into the new year our hopes and continued perspective that the world can be a better place, over taking into tommorow the notion that our burdens are here to stay, and what the editiorial refers to as 'sliding scale between utopia and dystopia' which i really liked, because it brings a notion of both prospect and dread into the new year, the big question is which however will dominate, not which we hold dear [which is where i think the editiorial failed, and id like to pick up].

So firstly, what do i mean with the 'dirty word' that i talk about with relation to 2011, [no I don't mean the 'f' word] i mean the 'r' word. Thats right, recession, the word i know all your blog readers are dieing to hear about [HEADLINE: 'and today, the economy has herpes'] but really people, can i just stop you for a moment and lets have a tiny chat about 'recession, recession' in the middle of my column. I have been digging through some old economist articles and found one called The Recession Index - Words that Can Harm You all the way back in [what might as well be the Jarassic Period of] 2002. The article talks about the r-word index, where you count the number of newspaper articles that use the word 'recession' and with comparison of everyones favourite word with previous years, you get an image of how perceptions of the economy sit. I decided to do my own experiment along these times and test out what is the world was thinking about right about now when it comes to the word recession? [HEADLINE: 'and today, the economy has climaxed and now is beginning to shrink bringing with it sticky unemployment'.] If you type in 'the recession is beginning' into the search engine you get 18,700,00 results, and if you type in 'the recession is over' you get 32,800,000 results. With this in mind, and considering some of the groups that have begin to collect numbers on Facebook another 'recession meter' like "using the recession as an excuse for just about anything, no matter how irralavant" which has just over 14,000 people, you get a further picture, but in the end who really wants to start a group on facebook called 'I want to have babys with the recession' so maybe that is a bad example, I wonder however where this blog will sit with relation to the recession meter, hot or cold? Prehaps starting my first post about the new year talking about the word recession isn't a good way to leave my readers with what inspired the title, but never fear, I'm getting there.

It would seem that this optimism is held towards 2011 because we have spent enough time procrastinating about the current year [and lets face it, enough time focusing on the world recession]. And we can talk about how 'this indicates that' all day long, but in the end i have to use the words of a certain gentleman in the white house, but i think now is simply for so many a time for a change. Money is on the flow, and now most of the O.E.C.D [its mean like all these developed nations, Wikipedia it] economies are no long in recession, which is something to be optimistic about, right? This type of thinking is where the phoenix comes into it, cause after all,  we have to move forward, we are all realizing we cannot stay in the same place for too long, as much as because things are getting better. Its not about a cycle of 'good economy' today, and 'bad economy' the next day, it is simple about move onto the next think.  But what we really are very quick to forget is that the overused dirty word is something we do to each other as much as we do to ourselves, the economy words in cycle and a reluctance to hire, or a rise in price, is something we do which hurts ourselves, because it means that someone who would have spent won't, and the more money flows, the better the world is. 2011 will be the year that everyone starts spending more, and start looking at challenges dealing with government debt, and not just forget about it and make excuses [you watch, when the US congress goes to 'raise the debt limit' soon, it won't be able to pass, and not because the US cannot handle anymore debt, but that the US shouldn't, it can start to deal with the issues at hand, rather then governance being all about 'bringing us back from the greatest depression..."] Thinking about global warming, thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship, and thinking about starting a new business, this is going to be the year of the Phoenix, where the modern nations continue their rise. We need to think of what to make of 2011, and what our new thing will be, and that is where I think we begin, and not end, for the prediction i give for 2011 is that we are going to hear the word recession a lot less, cause it isn't 2010 any more, so now we move on to something else, whatever that maybe.