There's been a lot of discussion about the ongoing fight for Web supremacy between Google and Facebook but, to date, the debate has centered around matters like privacy and metrics like page views and ad dollars. In the past week, however, it appears both companies are taking direct aim at the heart of the other's core business. First, AllFacebook.com reported that Facebook launched an "open graph search engine." Then, Kevin Rose sent the blogosphere into, well, the stratosphere with a tweet suggesting that a new Google social network called "Google Me" is imminent. In today's column, I'll dissect Facebook's search …

Let's face it: a fragmented paywall approach to content doesn't serve anyone. Our consumption habits are too dispersed and too immediate to justify paid subscriptions to individual providers. If I'm reading a blog and it links to a source article from a site I don't normally read, I don't want to have to bust out the credit card and pay three bucks to get a bit more info.

Business is moving fast and furious -- which is great, but I keep hearing and reading about two general overarching themes that are going to collide and change how we manage our business.

We have to examine what we know about search evolution, and how we see that delivered to the benefit of users. The next revolution won't come from Google or its rivals, but someplace new.

As I write this, I'm at the B2B Search Strategy Summit in San Francisco. Mary O'Brien, the summit organizer, told me that many potential attendees -- and yes, even some panelists -- questioned where B2B search marketing was really all that different from B2C. Shouldn't the same basic practices apply? I answer that question the same way I answer all questions about marketing: Let's look at it through the eyes of the buyer. And when we do that, we find some significant differences as we step from the consumer side to the business side.

If my last column -- titled "Could This Be Google's Privacy Moment?" -- confirmed anything, it was the basic assertion that Internet users are near-wholly apathetic when it comes to privacy. Users just don't care, and Facebook and Google can have a direct pipe inside their brains, as long as they can play Farmville and also get an instant answer whenever they are met with a fleeting impulse to seek. My opinion is based on completely anecdotal evidence of nearly 15 years of monitoring the Internet space for such issues, and the minimal number of comments and retweets on that …

"It's hard to overstate what Apple's done with the App Store," said a game developer friend last night. Another IT buddy at the same dinner concurred: "It's just an absurdly easy platform for publishers to get product into the hands of consumers. They've definitely earned their 30%." Profoundly true, my friends' comments underscore the idea that the biggest success stories of our day share a common characteristic: they are matchmakers, not brides.

The Web as echo chamber is in full force. Consider the very silly story of three Portuguese words innocently spoken by a single man in Brazil that became a worldwide search for meaning, a new crusade to save an endangered species, and the launch of a new Lady Gaga hit song.

SMX Advanced was here in Seattle last week, and it was a great conference with a metric ton of great information. There are a few items of note that I think would interest you and potentially impact how you are doing SEO for your companies right now. Sit tight and we'll blast through three or four of them.

The theme of the Business Marketing Association conference I talked about in last week's column was "Engage." At the conference, the word engagement was tossed around more freely than wine and bomboniere at an Italian wedding. Unfortunately, engagement is one those buzzwords that has ceased to hold much meaning in marketing. The problem is that engagement itself is an ambiguous term. It has multiple meanings. As I pondered this and discussed with others, I realized the problem is that marketers and customers have two very different definitions of engagement. And therein lies the problem.