Should Facebook Be Worried?

[beddo]

Google needs to watch their step. All the money in the world can't save them when the US Government decides that they want it.

You really overestimate the power of the state. The fact is that they won't dare take Google head on in any significant way. The US government can't just arbitrarily take money from a given company, the consequences would be too dire.

If the state can shut down a profitable company for being successful then they will soon find a massive lack of investment through fear of unpredictable government decisions. multinational companies will simply remove themselves from the US if it loses it competitive edge; low taxes, stable economy and a stable legal framework.

 

[Joshimodo]

Nightmare scenario - They team up.

 

[DTWolfwood]

lol over reacting no? these 2 site serve totally different purposes. y is google gunning for them?

 

[Iron Criterion]

Oh great so that means the friendless moaners will have another social network site to complain about *yawn*

 

[theklng]

a decent article on the escapist! who would have thought?

although i am sort of iffy about how wise it would be of google to show their business strategy to the world. who knows how many copycats will enter the race?

 

[stygN]

Death to Facebook!

 

[Marowit]

I know I've already canceled my FB account. My significant other, and her siblings have as well. And you know what? We haven't missed it one bit. Sure, sharing pictures was fun, but guess what? we can do that in person just as easily.

I personally trust Google more than Zuckerberg, and would definitely give their social-media-platform a spin. But, FB also taught me not to trust these kinds of sites ( putting up likes/dislikes for example) with anything more than my name and email address so data mining will be a little more difficult in the future I think (hope?).

 

[antidonkey]

Bleh...social networking.

I don't care about facebook nor their fate should google try to knock them down a few pegs.
Just remember this, no one thought Apple could be topped when they whipped out the Iphone but along came Android.

 

[Niccolo]

Google obviously has search, Android, Maps and GMail. They also bought the biggest video site YouTube, and I'm thinking that AdSense is probably the biggest advertising platform(?) in the world and Translate the most used translation service. They also have some really nice resources for (web) developers (Google Code, Analytics, Charts, Gadgets). Furthermore, I think products like Chrome, Calendar/Agenda, Reader and Docs are also fairly succesful (although probably not market leaders).

They have a lot of products. Many of which are at least somewhat succesful, some of which are not. It seems that lately they haven't really been on a good streak...

Snippage occurred.

Chrome's successful, but it didn't dominate... I think it's only at 10 or 20 percent. More than Safari, but that's 'cause Safari is less user friendly than a homemade explosive.

You know, this is sad... I use Gmail and I forgot all about it. Well done Nick. And I did forget about the Android... though actually I thought that it wasn't a rousing success. I recall reading about a few issues. Hmm.

xD I guess I just don't use enough google stuff to realise how big it is. I should have guessed from the utter domination of the IT share market, though.

 

[imnot]

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! The plan is working. Soon every popular internet website will destroy one another (except for the Escapist of course) and Snooty Enterprises Inc reigns supreme over the Info Superhighway.
/nonsensical rambling.

the 4chan barbarians will rape facebooks wife and daughter!
i hope its better than facebook because face book is just stupid for reasons i cant be bothered to explain.

 

[Sean Strife]

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! The plan is working. Soon every popular internet website will destroy one another (except for the Escapist of course) and Snooty Enterprises Inc reigns supreme over the Info Superhighway.
/nonsensical rambling.

the 4chan barbarians will rape facebooks wife and daughter!
i hope its better than facebook because face book is just stupid for reasons i cant be bothered to explain.

Not before they let out their war cry of "tits or gtfo"

 

[Shapsters]

As long as the new Google site has PROPERLY WORKING CHAT I am on board *grumbles* Don't see why its so hard for Facebook to make a chat system that actually works.

Google already has their own chat software (Google Talk) that also works in GMail. I don't use it, so I don't know if it fits your idea of "working properly".

I don't use it either and I don't plan to because Skype and MSN work perfectly fine for me. However I get very frustrated when I go on Facebook and they are too damn lazy to fix their extremely flawed chat system. So if the site that Google makes does have good chat, as I said before I will gladly switch.

 

[Meghan_mph]

I went through this thread and after all these posts about what Google tried and in what succeeded I see a picture of 'Pinky & The Brain'. They try and they believe that one day they will rule the world.
Good luck!

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! The plan is working. Soon every popular internet website will destroy one another (except for the Escapist of course) and Snooty Enterprises Inc reigns supreme over the Info Superhighway.
/nonsensical rambling.

Not so fast, Snooty! If and when the websites destroy each other and begin to tear down the internet in an epic cyber-war, the 7 INTERNET DEFENDERS [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.220999-Elite-Seven-Chosen-As-Guardians-of-the-Internet] will use their magic keys to reset the internet; thwarting your plans!

OT: Facebook is a super-power among the internet, and I doubt Google's take on the whole social thing will threaten it. Not immediately, anyway.

 

[Danpascooch]

Kongregate is being bought? Good for them, they deserve it, damn good games.

Anyway, I hope Google uses this opportunity to show some standards with social gaming, instead of the usual Facebook shit.

I am all for success for Google, they've given me more free stuff than any other company, by a landslide.

 

[Waif]

Facebook does indeed have something to be worried about, we have to consider that their recent policies that have forced social gaming developers to pay through the nose, all the while removing/limiting some of the things that make these games popular (such as notifications, gifting, etc) has earned it some enmity to say the least. It seems that Google is making the right move. We may very well see a new era in social gaming come out of this.

 

[Carnagath]

I'd happily switch to Google for something lighter, cleaner and free of Zynga spam, but if they are there too what's the point?

 

[OceanRunner]

If Google are only going for social gaming then FaceBook still has the edge with it's messeging service.

 

[William Dickbringer]

Google needs to watch their step. All the money in the world can't save them when the US Government decides that they want it.

As it happens the US Government is not all powerful, hush silly forum person.

I shall not hush, and the US Government certainly is all powerful, within the United States. And Google is based in the US. Think what you like, but the laws are written so convolutedly complex that the Government could shut them down if they so chose, and imprison any of the executives in the process.

It may not necessarily be right, but it is possible. Whether the FBI has to go digging through the execs and companies financial records, or they simply ran their company a little shoddy for a couple of weeks, they can find or create problems out of the smallest things.

To bad about all that infomation [http://philosecurity.org/2009/12/24/our-google-government] Google has on them.

On-Topic: Everyone remember that one article [http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_wants_to_be_your_one_true_login.php][footnote]Read the comments. "LET ME LOG IN!" Ha ha, priceless.[/footnote] that people thought was Facebook? All because it was the first search result returned when you entered "Facebook Login" into Google. (Read about it Here [http://www.cracked.com/article_18453_5-reasons-internet-could-die-at-any-moment_p2.html])

Google, have you tried removing Facebook from your search results? I wonder who it would more negatively impact.

geez 762 comments about not being able to log in...HAHAHA losers thanks for pointing it out

all I have to say is I'm worried Google is becoming a monopoly of the web they EVERYTHING and they keep making more soon there will be google porn to challenge the internet porn industry