Facebook versus Google

[Whitey]

Over 30 years of running business' referral traffic has always outperformed "tire kickers". The ratio of sales traditionally was 25% of referrals convert and less than 8-10% of raw sales leads convert.

Not much has changed, except that ratio of converts from search clicks is a lot less for most folks. Probably 5% on brand would be good and 1-2% on search to clicks would be reasonable.

So, with Facebook limbering up for an IPO , I'm seeing some interesting personalisations occuring with folks like TripAdvisor - who were recently upset with Google for using their content. Can this type of thing really be engineered to take business away from search in a big way ? Is it a real threat to Google ?

The power of social referal versus Google search ?

[Whitey]

Wait for it - the facebook "social" browser!

It may be closer than we think.

[googleblog.blogspot.com ]

We’re confident that +1, combined with all of the social content we’re now including in search, will mean even better, more relevant results than you get today.

Lot's of discussion here : [webmasterworld.com...] and i liked ( can i say that ), this comment:

There's been a lot of discussion about the kind of data Facebook is collecting. Since the +1 buttons communicate within your Google "network", looks like Google is after the same goldmine.

[Dan01]

I think there are two types of people here (more than that but for argument...):

1) There are people who sell stuff. Those people look at FB as another option for advertising.

2) Other people produce content. Totally different mindset. I don't want to pay FB, Google or anyone to get visitors to my site. It isn't worth it. That is what SEO is for.

We will still want to use FB to drive readers to our site though. That is where our ads are.

Personally, everything I put up on my site automatically goes to my FB feed.

For me, I want to get people to Like my feed so they get it in their inbox every day. On everyone of our webpages we have severl links to FB - "Find us on FB", "Post" and we will be putting a like button on it soon.

Until I can put ads on my FB page that I can profit from, it is hard to get too excited about FB.

I would also be interested in putting FB ads on my website (like Adsense), if they ever have that functionality - and I hope they do. They need to get more advertisers first.

Advertising on FB is like a pushy salesman walking in on a party. Ignored.

That was the funniest quote of the thread. Unless it is a hot-looking girl, I don't even notice the ads on FB. Does anyone click on the ads? Are they relevant or can they be?

[netmeg]

I don't particularly like FB personally. It lets me keep in touch with some people, but it also drags up people I'd left behind for a reason.

But I *love* FB for what it does for my sites. I no longer have to be so reliant on Google traffic. I have a small (several thousand) but enthusiastic little bunch of brand evangelists who will happily plug my content to their friends - and think I'm doing them a favor by publishing it. I have an instant focus group if I want to try new things, or get feedback on something. All I have to do is toss up some buttons and code, I have other services that publish blog posts and other content to the FB pages, and I haven't spent one thin dime on it - just a little time to understand how it works and put my little network together. And be myself and engage with my visitors. I'm just as happy if others stay away from it. Fewer distractions for my users, and more engagement with *me*.

I look at FB as being very similar to an opt in email mailing list. It's push marketing (as opposed to a website which is pull) but it's push marketing that people sign up for, and can easily drop out if they decide they don't want it anymore. No fuss, no muss.

So all you people who don't like it and don't think there's any opportunity there - you're probably right. Keep going with that.

[mrguy]

So all you people who don't like it and don't think there's any opportunity there - you're probably right. Keep going with that.

Yes! I agree 100%. Nothing to see there, just move along ;)

[Dan01]

To me, Google, FB, Twitter, Bing etc are all tools. The goal is to figure out how to use those tools to increase income / revenue.

[rico_suarez]

We all need competition in search otherwise a company holding 70% of the market will rule the place according to it's own wants and needs. If there was any competition in search Panda would probably never happen in this scale, Google would never have guts to change 12% of US queries and risk big errors in search with a competitor on its back. But when you own 70% of the market, you simply don't care. Facebook may have something in the works, but how good it will be, remains to be seen.

[DanAbbamont]

Apples and oranges. Facebook is the best at social and Google is the best at search. Both companies have been that way since they started. Just fantastic engineering companies that nobody can touch.

The thing about an engine like bing, which has come pretty close to Google in quality, is that they're still chasing Google's advancements. Google exploded because they were the ones who came up with PageRank and became the only engine that actually worked right. Every other engine implemented the same idea and eventually got pretty close. Then Google starts using trust and authority and they revolutionize search again while the other guys scurry to keep up. Even Panda, as much as webmasters hate it, is a half step to an important milestone. They're working on real content quality appraisal while bing is busy with ads bragging that they're pretty decent too.

I think Facebook and Google should just partner up.

[Shatner]

>>I think Facebook and Google should just partner up.

Better idea. Facebook & Bing should partner up to give Google some real competition, which it does not have now.

[DanAbbamont]

The thing about Bing and Facebook is that Microsoft doesn't have the engineers they need to make the next big leap in search. Even if they did, I'm sure Google engineers would catch up in no time. Facebook isn't going to spare its current engineers to work on search because they work around the clock now to keep Facebook's momentum going as an innovator in social networking.

Google already has my email, my calendar, and pretty much everything on my cell phone. The other account on there is Facebook which is also integrated into the phone via address book and stuff. They could just merge accounts like Google and Youtube did and things would be made in the shade for them.