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Facebook, Microsoft Team Up Against Google

Posted by Soulskill on from the pretty-soon-we-won't-have-to-talk-to-our-friends-at-all dept.

Pickens writes "In a move that could be the biggest threat to Google's search standing yet, Microsoft and Facebook announced that they're teaming up for social search. When someone uses Bing's search engine to look for a new car or a book, she can see which ones her friends liked. While industry watchers say this is an interesting move for search, what's most notable is that Facebook turned to Microsoft for this deal and not to the market leader, Google. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says there is a specific reason he wants to go with Bing: 'They really are the underdog here. They're incentivized to go out and innovate. They have all these smart people and are trying to do all these new things.' The real importance of this week's announcement is that it highlights the growing strategic conflict between Facebook and Google, says analyst Ray Valdes. 'There is a battle for the future of the Web, and it is not about search engines, but about the social Web.'"

6 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. Oh dear... by ocularsinister · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I really am regretting ever creating a Facebook account. If things carry on in this direction, I shall delete the thing soon.

    1. Re:Oh dear... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I for one identified early on that Facebook and similar sites appeal to a form of vanity I do not personally possess.
      Even if I did find that tempting, vanity is not a rational reason to participate in something.

      Perhaps the reason you caught flak was really for such a snooty attitude.

      While narcissism may be a motivator for some users of facebook, it can hardly be said that vanity is the draw.
      The ability to easily connect (and reconnect) with friends present and past is quite valuable to most regular people.
      The price may be too high and too hidden, but that doesn't make the value provided any less meaningless.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  2. Granpa Google by dasdrewid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They're incentivized to go out and innovate. They have all these smart people and are trying to do all these new things.

    I mean, jeez, yeah. The last thing I heard about Google doing was building cars that drive themselves in traffic. That's sooo mid-2000s... Facebing is looking to the future here! Those 500 people that I once knew in HS and college that I haven't talked to in 3+ years and that every time I do I'm reminded of why I don't talk to them (nothing in common, completely antithetical views on most things, too many freaking country-club-kiddies who don't know the difference between Bing and Best Buy)? Those are *definitely* the people who's likes I want showing up first in my search engine results!

    Now, to be fair, Microsoft does actually have some pretty sweet research going on. And while most of that research is in things pretty unrelated to search, a lot of Google's research is also pretty unrelated to search. But to say that you're going with Bing over Google because Bing is "incentivized to innovate" sounds like that phrase had it's own paragraph in the contract, right above where the $ was followed by a dozen "0"s.

    Hey, gotta pay for the Newark school system somehow, right?

    --
    No trespassing. Violators will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
  3. Translation: by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Translation of Zuckerberg's comments: "Microsoft has loads of cash, and they're willing to cut me an insanely good deal and throw money my way if it's got any chance of giving them a leg up on Google.".

  4. It might work by hey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To most of us this sounds abhorrent but it might be commercially successful anyhow.
    However, it seems a bit like the Kin... they are betting the phone's entire success on one app (or group of apps) - social.
    I think Android and iPhone are successful because they are just platforms to run any kind of app... the users decide what they want.

  5. Microsoft is heavily invested in Facebook by brunes69 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Surprised this article and /. summary is so poorly researched. (Then again this is /. what can I expect?)

    Microsoft is very heavily invested in Facebook.

    They put 240 million dollars into it years ago, they own a substantial stake in the company.

    They very likely have one or more key members on the board, and of course would be heavily against any involvement by Google, who is their top competitor.