Facebook is still rising strong on this 2010 upcoming spring... last week, for the first time ever; Facebook generated more traffic than Google to some websites, namely major portals MSN, Yahoo and AOL.
As this confrontation unfolds, and with each new chapter being written in this clash of the titans, we are starting to grasp the nature of the cultural cleavage between the two.
Of course, Google has, of recently, moved from traditional search into more diversified search services like personalized search, local search and real-time search, while making deals with Twitter and Facebook, and a few others; but all these new search services are still authority-page-ranking based as confirmed by a few articles here and there such as “How Google ranks Tweets”.
On the other hand, in the Facebook world, we are more interested into People; namely Friends! Of course, you’ll tell me that “People Are Content and Content Are People”; I know, I know. I’ve been joggling with the idea for more than 2 years now, without being able to come up with a nice formula or equation or synthesize an enlightening phrase but hey, that’s life...
In this Facebook world, anyway, we surf on a sea of People/Friends, not a sea of Content; we are focused onto what people have to say/show/share about their lives... mostly (McLuhan would say: "we are the information")! And that’s a major difference; the point is that it all starts with People/Friends, it’s kinda very personal.
Yeah but isn’t Perfect just another word to qualify some kind of authority, one may say; maybe, but it still starts with Friends, first. And then, not really, because, it is still people who decide themselves what is Perfect, for them!!!
Users activate the service at http://Apps.Facebook.com/searchforperfect by tagging the word 'perfect' to anything they share on Facebook, including photos, status updates, videos and links. The Search For Perfect Facebook application will then highlight perfect items from the user as well as from their friends' feeds.
Now, Google is not just standing watching the parade! They launched Buzz a few weeks ago; and although there might have been a few misfires at first, it's getting back on the "social" track. And now, they came up recently with something even bigger, in my opinion. SALMON!
WOW!!!
Now, where’s the influence in a conversation? It resides with the one who initiated it, it is spread amongst all participants or it stays where the conversation is being held; for instance, on a particular website! The thing is that with Salmon, any conversation could be brought back to any website participating in the stream! So, how would Google attribute link-authority to those multisite-aggregated conversations??? It remains to be... algorithmiced, I guess! To watch closely.
I remember something Mitch Joel said when he presented his book “Six degrees of Separation”, which I thought was very clever and powerful in describing the dynamics of Social Media: “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.” It really encapsulates the meaning of influence "à-la-Google".
For the moment, though, we are witnessing a change, or is it a change back, in the very nature of what we call “influence”; where it will be less about authority (linking, referencing, bookmarking, commenting, etc.; anything that gives weight in the page ranking algorithmic world of Google) and it is getting very “up close and personal” as we navigate / surf more and more following the recommendations and guidance of (real) people we know (in real) life and to which we are either directly or closely related to!!!
I guess Human Nature, with the help of Facebook, has finally caught up with Social Media and we’re back to square one as the old say sounds... sound again: “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.”
I’m kind of tired now... strangely!