DISQUS

I don't quite understand the social shopping experience and all that it might entail. Can you explain?

If, by social shopping FB hopes to get friends to vouch for products such that they all end up buying the same stuff I don't really see that as being what consumers really want. Web 2.0, blogging, MySpace, etc. has been the movement of making it your own, standing out as an individual, having one's own domain (such as you have here). All that seems counter to the holy grail of social shopping. Unless, as I said, I don't really understand the social shopping experience.

I think you're right, that he did reuse some of the code that was given to him by the ConnectU guys with the understanding that he would build ConnectU-not Facebook. My guess is that the original fb code, were it made available by Mark, would show this to be true-thus the disappearing act.

Hopefully, FB users can combine this new article, the ensuing litigation, AND what they know about Beacon, and FB's miss use of user data to come to the conclusion that the leader of FB may not be on the up and up, thus, FB itself may not be either.

"Imagine if Google enabled advertisers to not just market by keyword but also to select demographic information for each visitor. This would be revolutionary."

Hey Nick. Hope you had a great holiday. My take is that Google already has far more than user check-boxed demographic info and they heavily leverage it when serving up search results. With few exceptions, advertisers want a consumer to buy their product and they really don't care if the buyer is between ages x and y (unless it's booze of course). Every time we search we give Google better information on which to serve us more relivent ads, thus they are able to serve less ads (as they have been in recent quarters) but get greater conversion and thus higher revenue.

I think the question we should ask ourselves is: Will user reported demographic information combined with "group" association be a net positive ROI means for advertisers to target consumers? If they answer is yes, then we must ask: Will it be more or less effective than results served through targeted search results?

It's very important to understand that Google search is a living and learning organism. Every time we search and then click the system gets better at iterating the next searchers true intentions. And the system has been learning for almost 10 years.

Yes, I think you're being a bit too harsh. But, I think anyone developing applications for a closed platform, especially FB, is well aware of the risk of obsolescence. My guess is that this is the number one factor that will drive developers to focus development efforts in Open Social and Android.

This is funny, if you haven't already seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SH9iEn8Jfk

"Despite what the blogosphere may lead people to think, OpenSocial is still a very unproven project." "Until OpenSocial actually lives up to its hype, Facebook still has the upper hand"

1. i would say FB is still an unproven project ($15b valuation w/ $75m in revenue) 2. what upper hand does FB have?

Launched on time, as advertised and w/ a reach of 200m users vs FB 50m. I wonder how Microsoft and FB feel right about now?

We're all citizens of a larger Web--no network is an island onto itself," said Aber Whitcomb, CTO of MySpace. "We look forward to continuing to develop great technology with Google and all of the OpenSocial participants. It's exciting that social networks are getting social with each other."

The launch of OpenSocial is the first release of technical details for the forthcoming MySpace Platform. Starting tonight, developers can start writing applications for OpenSocial at http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial which the MySpace Platform will support at launch.

MySpace and Google Join Forces to Launch Open Platform for Social Application Development


Collaboration on ``OpenSocial'' to Spark and Simplify Web Innovation


LOS ANGELES & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov 01, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- MySpace, the world's largest social network, and Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) today announced that they are joining forces to launch OpenSocial-- a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web. The partnership spearheads an initiative to standardize and simplify the development of social applications. Today's announcement underscores MySpace's commitment to supporting standards that foster innovation in an increasingly social Web.

....and therefore should not be relied upon as official company news.....

Look, we can agree to disagree. It says and looks like a GOOG press release but it is dated Nov 1 and was posted by Battelle Oct 30. At best it was leaked, (granted, possibly intentionally by someone high up at GOOG but we just don't know), at worst it was fabricated and we will never see an official version from GOOG. In any event, it was not "officially" released by Google: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/

Nick, we don't know if someone up at the top or someone in the trenches leaked this to Battelle. This is not a GOOG press release. Therefore, it's innuendo. Rumor. And the blogisphere spread it. That was my point.

Honestly, it's the title of your post that is entirely misleading.

Nick, I have not seen anything to lead me to believe that GOOG PR was behind "the rumors". If anything, you and the rest of the blogisphere gave this more PR than anyone could have. It really doesn't matter what day the announcements are made and what day the code is finished and revealed. What matters are the months ahead: will FB get any traction with advertisers?

You seem highly critical of GOOG as the giant and none to skeptical of FB as the underdog. I can't even call FB a David at this point. All they are is potential. Unproven potential at that. THAT is the story here.

Q: Anyone know of any technological barrier to Goog doing the same cookie trick by categorizing users based on search history?

History = true intentions vs. self reported demo info on FB is peer driven.

Goog 2007 rev = ~$17b
FB 2007 rev = ~$150m - $75m MSFT fear $ = $75m
Goog 2001 rev = $86m
Goog cap ex through 2007 = ~$5.84b
Goog has proprietary software and hardware configs rivaling any commercially avail solution = roughly 10x computing advantage
Goog = 17k employees year end 2008
FB = 700 employees year end 2008

"Facebook Launching the Google Adsense Killer" make fun talk but probability = lower than winning the lottery.

Wait, $15b private valuation with 300 employees and $75b rev IS winning the lottery.

Q: can Zuck win the lottery twice? Not likely, but we won't have to worry about it until somewhere around 2012. That is, if you gave FB a management team, 15k employees and $6b to invest wisely and they could do so by tomorrow.

MSFT = desperate. GOOG = smart to fake interest in FB to make investment more expensive for MSFT.

I find this award a bit humorous. It's like comparing a 12 year old pee wee baseball player to Mr. Bonds, if you will. The jury on FB and MS as real businesses is still out, like, WAY OUT. My guess is they are both flashes in the pan, ala Friendster.

"Social Shopping" is indeed alive and well. It's called hanging out after school at the mall. It is both truly shopping and social in the real sense of the words.

cheers!