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Facebook, Google In Battle For Web Dominance

  • Wired, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 1:30 PM
You can forget Google vs. Microsoft, says Wired's Fred Vogelstein: "Today, the Google-Facebook rivalry isn't just going strong, it has evolved into a full-blown battle over the future of the Internet -- its structure, design, and utility." Sure, the last decade or so has belonged to Google and its algorithms and equations for organizing the Web's information, but the future -- at least, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- is a "more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline."

In this world, users' will tap into their social graph to find products, services, and new friends based on the recommendations of their network. "It is a complete rethinking of how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the center," says Vogelstein. "In other words, right where Google is now."

Even Googlers recognize that Facebook represents a growing threat. "Eventually, we are going to collide," one executive says.

However, talk of a collision certainly seems premature. After all, insiders estimate that Facebook burned through all of the $275 million it made last year, while Google made $4.2 billion on net revenue of $15.8 billion. But ultimately, Facebook executives think they're going after a much bigger market than search: the expensive brand campaigns that have thus far failed to migrate online. "Now," says Vogelsetin, "instead of working together to reach the promised land of online brand advertising, Facebook and Google are racing to see who can get there first."

Read the whole story at Wired »

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