Escalation of Tensions Around Tastemaker Data

If Google had its way, it would put a straw in the data milkshake of every popular website out there and make itself into a complete expert on what you want to see when you perform a search. Although this would give Google an unfair advantage over any search engine, current or future, it would certainly be good for the user (privacy issues aside). However, this situation cannot exist as long as a free, competitive market exists. The big websites want to protect their data so that they have the opportunity to personalize your experience and profit from it. And when they perceive that another company is infringing on that ability, they resort to desperate measures.

In May 2011, a fracas broke out when news hit that Facebook had secretly hired a PR firm to expose Google’s alleged privacy issues in social search. The incident was said to be a response to Facebook’s resentment over Google harvesting public Facebook page information. While the event underscores the bitter rivalry between the two giants, it points out one very interesting thing: Facebook’s perceived weakness. Knowing that Facebook is nervous about Google’s social search plans is one more in a list of reasons why I believe that, despite all its setbacks, Google will eventually get social search right—even if it’s a different kind of social search than Facebook’s or Bing’s.