Facebook vs. Google: How Marketers Can Learn Out Of the Recent Smear Campaign?

June 16, 2011 in business marketing

Competition is inevitable no matter what area you specialize in. Considering how it can keep you sharp and focused on providing the best possible service, it may even be safe to say that a little competition is good for business. All companies must have a competitive nature in order to survive, but we have seen competition take on a whole new life in the saga of Facebook vs. Google, a war between two of the internet’s biggest players and one that seems to get uglier by the day.
By: Fletcher Thompson

Facebook Admits to Playing Dirty

While it is currently sitting high atop the social networking ladder, Facebook has also found itself in the middle of controversy due to its questionable approach toward stamping out the competition. In early May, a suspicious email made its way into the inboxes of several prolific journalists and bloggers. The message, which was sent out by Burson-Marsteller, pretty much slammed Google’s name in the mud, alleging that the search giant had committed a major violation of user privacy.

With the internet community buzzing and scrambling to figure out the mastermind behind the mysterious email, it wasn’t too long before Facebook came out and admitted that it hired the public relations firms to do its bidding. According to the social networking company, Google utilized Social Circle, a feature native to its Gmail webmail client, to steal personal user information from Facebook and other sites for inclusion. Though many are surprised that the social network came out and admitted that it was involved in what is now infamously known as the “Google smear campaign“, it seems as if it had no other choice after the evidence reportedly dug up by news outlet The Daily Beast.

Things Could Get Even Uglier

The collision course Facebook and Google find themselves on has been in the making for some time now. Theses two powerful entities are competitors in numerous areas, including social, search, and online advertising among others. While the so called smear campaign obviously marks the most intense episode of the war up to this point, some have been predicting an all out showdown from the moment Facebook outpaced MySpace as the number social network. With Google looking to enhance its social profile, Facebook doing business with Microsoft, and both companies gearing up to invade the daily deal market, it is probably fair to conclude that this war could get even uglier in the very near future.

Welcome to Cut Throat Island

In the business world, competition is all about survival, and if you need another lesson on just how cut throat it can become, you got it with the recent developments in the war between Facebook and Google. For marketers, it is a perfect example of how some competitors are willing to pull out all the stops, even if it means playing dirty. Take it as a lesson on the importance of staying on your toes and being able to respond promptly to adversity. Google is strong enough to shake off Facebook’s blow and return the favor. How about your business?

About the Author:

Fletcher is a best practices activist and advocate for leading Web and permission-based email marketing services.

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Knowtebook
Jun 18, 2011
No: 3 / ID: 8550

trinity: you seem like very experienced on this. what about writing a guest post on KnowteBook? write us a mail (contact).

Knowtebook
Jun 18, 2011
No: 2 / ID: 8549

haha..hey trinity. thanks for your long post. i quess, you will like then our newest post about google wallet, which will make you more happy.

trinity
Jun 18, 2011
No: 1 / ID: 8537

What Facebook did backfired to them, and Facebook is getting LAMER every second while Google is leveling up and getting BETTER and BETTER. You know what Facebook is? “Facebook is for attention ******. For people that have to live vicariously through other people. For people that have nothing better to do but to sit on the computer all day at their jobs or whatever they do and complain about the weather, their loser lives, or to make themselves feel important. In other words, Facebook takes some of the worst of the human emotions and puts it out there for the whole world to see. People complaining about their kids and what a pain they are instead of doing their job and disciplining their children.”

Privacy issues? If there was any issue about PRIVACY, then FACEBOOK is the one who should be investigated. Facebook is a giant data mine for marketing companies, and users have NOT A SINGLE CLUE that they’re all being sold by Facebook to marketers. I’ve also read that Facebook has had so much privacy issues in the past. If people should be scared of privacy, it’s Facebook they should be scared of and not Google. Facebook’s database has already stored your profile, your family, your job, school, address, mobile number, email, things you are passionate about, PICTURES, even your personal PICTURES are already their property, YOUR EVERY FRIGGIN MOVE (where you are now, what you ate for breakfast, where you got your new marble counters, where you work, where you hike, blah blah), and THEY OWN IT.

And then, they had the nerve to badmouth Google? They are truly unprofessional. I’ve already know this when it came out but I just keep on getting mad at FB whenever I read it. My God, Facebook is soo pathetic and so desperate. They can NEVER NEVER NEVER level up to Google!!! In their dreams. They have always tried but never succeeded. Facebook is just an online soap opera for attention seeking, often immature people (NOT ALL of them anyway, but MOST), and pretentious criminals waiting for their next big target. It’s a fad that will fall into the ground eventually. On the other hand, GOOGLE is just about HELPING people and improving their services. I’ve seen their unstoppable INNOVATION ever since I was a highschool kid, when all of my classmates used YAHOO as the only known search engine and being a geek, I used Google and have always been fascinated by it, by the integrity of the people behind it, by its HONESTY, by its culture. They implement updates for better security (I AM SO IN LOVE WITH 2 STEP VERIFICATION in GMAIL, really the most powerful email platform… but be sure you always bring your cellphone if you turn this on), they regularly carry out search algorithm changes to ward off irrelevant search thus leading
to USERS’ better search experience (GOOGLE DOESN’T GIVE A ***** IF WEBMASTERS GET ANGRY OR *****, they just strive to have the BEST USER EXPERIENCE). They have this advocacy of fighting spammers, and even if webmasters get slapped often, they RESPECT and LOVE google still, and try their best to IMPROVE THEIR CONTENT. They remain Google loyalists. And look at what they did to the Blogger new interface! After watching the youtube video “Have you seen Blogger lately?”, I was soo hooked with tinkering with the new blogger because it was soo fast, so efficient, friendly, and just so attractive (good work with the orange)! Blogspot is fast catching up with wordpress, if they haven’t already. I’m just saying that Facebook should not dream of being a Google because IT SIMPLY WILL NEVER BE.

I’m sorry for such a long comment that turned into a pseudopost. LOL. I’m just a passionate Google supporter and I can’t keep my mouth shut knowing that Evil Facebook tries to ruin MY Google. **** if had enough money I’d buy lots of GOOG stocks. I love google. Thanks Sergei Brin and Larry Page and Matt Cutts and Googlers who keep my world simple. Facebook ruins lives and

careers. Google just wants to help, Google is everyone’s friend. I LOVE GOOGLE, so don’t ever mess with it. Period.

Facebook vs. Google: How Marketers Can Learn Out Of the Recent Smear Campaign?

Facebook Admits to Playing Dirty

Things Could Get Even Uglier