Facebook has a vision for the internet: less anonymous, connected by social graphs rather than links and Google algorithms. They see themselves as a direct competitor to Google.
Zuckerberg doesn’t pull any punches, describing Google as “a top-down way” of organizing the Web that results in an impersonal experience that stifles online activity. “You have a bunch of machines and algorithms going out and crawling the Web and bringing information back,” he says. “That only gets stuff that is publicly available to everyone. And it doesn’t give people the control that they need to be really comfortable.” Instead, he says, Internet users will share more data when they are allowed to decide which information they make public and which they keep private. “No one wants to live in a surveillance society,” Zuckerberg adds, “which, if you take that to its extreme, could be where Google is going.”
Facebook wants to conquer the Internet, but talk is cheap.
First they need to figure out how to turn a profit. Facebook ran at a $75 million loss last year. By contrast, Google has a business model – not a “plan” – an actual, working system for making money through advertising, and they have the infrastructure and technology to implement it on a vast scale. Not only that, people using Facebook are not usually motivated to spend money, whereas some Google searches (like “digital camera” or “LA lawyers”) are revenue gold. Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, sees an alternative way of finding products and services, where you seek recommendations for, say, cameras and lawyers, from your friends rather than a search engine. That’s a great idea, but it’s still just a dream.
Meanwhile, Google is wide awake and making money.