facebook is the current buzz word in town. It is amazing to see how fast this platform grows in dominating and changing our social conversations.
Web users (the consumers) are now using the term "facebook me" to represent social interactions such as photo sharing, messaging, etc - combined with other popular social functions like tagging, posting comments, aps, fan pages, etc, facebook has huge potential in further developing its functions and uses.
It is obvious that there is no stopping of this social platform in dominating the new internet era. It is popular, it is "the" communication gateway, and you are regarded as living in another era if you don't have it.
On the other hand, Google is currently one of the most powerful search engines in the world. We are so used to the word "Google" that we name the action of searching things online as "Google it" - even though we might not actually be "Googling".
So, what threat does facebook pose on Google?
The threat here arises from the trend of our changing communication style - there is an exponential increase in information exchanged through social media platforms.
Consumers now prefer to get information from facebook, twitter, Linkedin, etc. In the case of facebook, is not just a product (an application), nor is it a lifestyle, facebook is slowly becoming part of its users' life - just like the concept of mobile phone where you can't work, function, or live without it.
facebook also changes the way organisations obtain market intelligence - market trends, consumers’ buying behaviors, perceptions of organisations’ products and services, etc. Organisations are forced to shift their focus from flanking defence and attack against competitors to hearing the voices of their target audiences, knowing their consumers’ wants, and engaging their consumers on a personal level through facebook.
The increasing flow of information in social media platforms like facebook means that consumers and orgnisations require a search engine that can perform a comprehensive search in these platforms. Though Google is the king of search for the internet, Google is unable to search through the intranet - and, facebook is a giant intranet. Hence, Google is not able to give its users a complete search result.
Currently, facebook does not have a comprehensive search function for all its users’ posts. With the growing popularity of facebook, an adverse impact to Google’s business model will occur if one day facebook decides to undertake a full launch into the search engine market.
