If Google was building, in John Battelle’s words, the database of intentions, then Facebook has been refining its database of connections.
Last year, after learning about the Spock “people search engine,” I wrote that MySpace was the closest thing to a search engine on people, because it was the social network with the most amount of people in it. I called it the directory of people.
This year I asked why doesn’t LinkedIn and Facebook create a directory of people’s contacts, on an opt-in basis.
Last week, I wondered what was keeping Mark Zuckerberg from opening up his massive index of people - 24M strong - to Google and allow the search engine to index it.
Today I realized why. Facebook is on its way to be the directory of people, I’m not alone, apparently.
Google indexes practically anything, but it cannot index Facebook yet. So if you want to look for people, you can try on MySpace (good luck), you can try a random search on Google… but in all likelihood your best bet is to try on Facebook. And so long as Google cannot index Facebook, then Facebook’s got an edge, leverage. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a strong likelihood that at some point, Facebook opens up its database for Google to crawl and index. But with 100% growth in 5 months, why bother now?
Indeed, Facebook just surpassed - despite its smaller size - MySpace in that regards. And, Google is well aware of this risk factor.
Connecting the dots: when Google paid $3.1B for Doubleclick, everyone criticized and ridiculed Microsoft for losing that battle. MSFT then went on to win the real crown jewel in online advertising: aQuantive (disclaimer: I own shares in AQNT). But, MSFT inadvertantly also ended up making Google part with 30% of its cash hoard, using $3B out of $10B.
Considering that Facebook has turned down offers of $800M, $1B, $1.6B and maybe even Google’s $2.3B recently, one must wonder, what would it take to take out the Facebook threat?
MSFT currently has an ad relationship with Facebook. I’ve said for a while that the only two companies that can take out Facebook are a) Microsoft and b) my old boss Rupert Murdoch’s company, News Corp.
Related:
- Facebook 100M users, a matter of when, not if.
- Facebook OS: Be careful what you ask for.
- Facebook: IPO vs. M&A.
- Facebook’s 2008 to do list: File for an IPO.
- Should MSFT Turn its Attention to Facebook?
- Peter Thiel: Facebook is Worth $8B.
- Murdoch: “MySpace worth $6B”, if so, then break up FIM!
- Facebook to be worth $2.35B by 2010.
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