Slashdot Mirror
Facebook, Microsoft Team Up Against Google
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.'"
Plus they gave me a bonus.
So is this a deliberate attempt for Facebook to allocate resources towards Diaspora? Are they deliberately fueling the two headed monster that will replace them?
I really am regretting ever creating a Facebook account. If things carry on in this direction, I shall delete the thing soon.
There is a battle for the future of the Web, and it is not about search engines, but about the social Web
There is a battle for the future of people's *privacy*. On one side, ordinary people. On the other side, spooks and profiteers who tell us that "privacy doesn't matter".
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
...the "Push" of this decade.
This seems like one of those things that sounds like a cool idea but never takes off. Most people probably aren't hugely interested in seeing which cars their friends recommend. I think most people are still in the mindset that if they want someone's opinion on something they'll ask them directly. Maybe there are some interesting uses for this, but the cars example in the summary seems pretty bland.
I've always wondered why they don't have a dislike option as well.
Bing is utter crap.
Maybe in general, but their "birds eye view" perspective in their mapping section kicks google's ass. I think google is trying to catch up, but it was too buggy to even work when I tried what sounded like the google equivalent.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I can see it now.... I'll be shopping at Walgreens.com and there will be popups on that say what kind of Hemorrhoid cream my boss uses, and that my Aunt Grace just bought a some warming KY-Jelly.
Some things need to stay private.
Microsoft have a habit of fatally betraying any company they "partner" up with. I couldn't have picked a better candidate for such a fate!
incentivized to go out and innovate??? Someone forgot this Bing technology which microsoft has innovated so greatly is mostly just yahoo under the hood. based on the core technology alone, one could surmise they dont have many intelligent folks working long hours on this. I suspect the real reason was a nice, greasy palm full of cash from microsoft.
as for the social web i could take it or leave it, mark. People forget the original "social web" was IRC and usenet. All you've offered arguably is a clever sand box for market research and a communications system that doesn't challenge anyone to engage in a real conversation.
Good people go to bed earlier.
"Their search engine sucks."
"They gave us a lot of money"
"They're rich and desperate. Ka-ching!"
Log in or piss off.
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.
The idea of Facebook and Microsoft teaming up together is very scary. Two companies riddled with security flaws... Those running the botnets are smiling from ear to ear because they see more victims.
When someone uses Bing's search engine to look for a new car or a book, she can see which ones her friends liked.
And with a map interface, we can all see which cliff all the other rodents are leaping off today.
Have gnu, will travel.
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.".
Go and slay Grendel! You can do it! Imma stay here behind this fortress of GPL. KTHXBAI.
[signature]
Bing is utter crap.
Why? Seems to work pretty well for me.
Ahem - "surely people with the smallest amount of common sense don't use Google more than they can help because of fears of how much data is being gathered by Google". I contend that's just as legitimate/silly an issue.
If I care about my friends' opinions on a particular topic, I ask them about it.
This is just so silly - doubly so, given the typical Facebook user's definition of "friend". Tell me, if you're doing a search - do you honestly care what random "Facebook Friend" Joe Schmoe, who you last met 20 years ago in daycare, liked or didn't like?
#DeleteChrome
It does, but he wont make a decision based on what other people think is cute.
Google's working on cars that drive by themselves.
What the fuck is Microsoft innovating?
Facebook is just a fad...
Most folks/corporations/ip-rights-holders don't mind being "liked". But if you publicise loudly enough that you "dislike" them, they might sue to stop you.
As a consumer, you are only allowed two votes: Consent or Abstain. There is no Dissent.
Eventually there'll be no Abstain.
OMG!!! Ponies!!!
So it will suggest you things that your friends (not some anonymous person) like? Disclosing private things from unknown people is pretty bad already, but if start to disclose private things of people in your circle ("would you like to buy inflatable dolls like your friend Frank?" to put an easy example) could mean troubles for both Microsoft, Facebook, and all their users.
Each item should have a red, yellow, and green button.
Green = Like
Red = Dislike
Yellow = indifferent but desperately lonely
And new infection vectors for trojans...
"[blink]You are infected!!! [/blink] Your friend recommends this virus scanner".
I am determined to be the last person on the planet to sign up for Facebook. I hate the concept and I hate the leader.
That said, I think there's one feature that might sway me.
I use Yahoo IM extensively. I love it. I use it on my phone and on my PC. It's relatively anonymous, friends don't know who your other friends are, it's exactly what I am looking for, in a person-to-person communication program.
I know Facebook has a mobile product and a chat product, and, from what I have read, a very complex way of setting up groups of your friends. But is there ANYTHING like "I just want to sign up for facebook to be able to communicate with a few friends, person-to-person via Instant messages. I don't want some wall-shit that people are going to write on. I don't want to share my photos, or my status. I just want to be able to send IM's. And I want it to be SIMPLE to just sign up and do JUST that. With relative anonymity. Without telling each friend who else I am friends with."
Do they have anything like that?
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.
Honestly , now to do a _bing_ search I have to log into a facebook account or how is this suppose to work? Also what about privacy issues ? XSS attacks ? How is this anonymously allowing me to search and bettering my privacy at the same time ?
The real reason is because both Microsoft and Facebook see eye-to-eye when it comes to user security. ;)
Both eyes are blind.
Microsoft's business strategy "be evil" seems a much better fit for Facebook.
All the while Apple keep sneaking up on them, it'd be so ironic if Steve Jobs turned the tables on them some 30odd years later.
That "in general" is where Google has won every single time, and why Microsoft fails time and time again to remain relevant. A single feature does not innovation make, nor will this minor feature matter to anybody who isn't shallow. Might as well argue that you prefer Microsoft's color scheme or fonts.
As long as Microsoft continues to launch unsuccessful products despite massive advertising campaigns, they will continue to stagnate and fall further behind Google and Apple.
Hm, it seems so many big companies like to spend millions of dollars on ERP disasters.
Still, it does seem simple to insert a tag to force IE8 to render in IE7mode. It would let everyone upgrade to IE8 on their PCs, which has to be worth some bonus points.
The EmulateIE7 tag below forces IE8 to render in IE7 mode (when enclosed in proper brackets)
meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7"
Its gets funnier. My girlfriend works a gigantic corporation (in the top 20 in the US), and she is forced to use IE 6, or all their legacy apps die. Recently they also installed a completely locked down copy of Firefox on their network, which is only for, and can only open, a single online app that was smart enough to kill their IE6 compatibility.
At least we think it is just for the legacy app, though we may be wrong since the street-level tech people are also flummoxed and (justifiably) annoyed.
On the bright side, from the corporations point of view, eventually they won't have to block most of the internet, since it won't work with their ancient browser. I keep asking her to present Netscape Navigator 4 as an alternative.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
Bing has come a long way since the days of Live Search and MSN Search.
The expected /. reaction to any story about Facebook, already evident in this thread, is along the lines of "Donotwant", "Lame", "Privacy Fail", "When I want to talk to my friends, I pick up the phone", etc.
Two facts I think slashdotters overlook: 1) "regular people" (i.e. everyone else) *love* the epic load of crap pretend socializing that Facebook provides, and care very little about the security of their information. b) there are a lot more of them than there are of us.
Google spends all of its time trying to mine your info (as a byproduct offering some really useful services - unlike Facebook). So they care very much about the "Social Web". Facebook has a half billion people tripping over themselves to cough up their personal info and build the Social Web basically for free. Honestly, if Facebook had a good search engine & email client, a lot of people would probably never go anywhere else. Sounds like a legitimate threat to me - even if not a single one of them can fix their own computer or speak Klingon.
If anything saves us, I think it'll be the fickleness of the mob. Hopefully, someone else will come up with the next Big Dumb Thing with Extra Farmville!, and Facebook will lose its grip the way MySpace did. But I doubt it'll be because 500,000,000 people suddenly wise up and realize they're not "really" socializing.
I'm going out on a limb and saying Bing's merits have little to do with this deal. Microsoft invested $240M in Facebook in 2007 so of course Facebook is going to be drinking their Kool-Aid.
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.
After a function in Washington D.C. which was attended by former presidents Carter, Ford, and Nixon, then-Senator Bob Dole famously quipped, "Last night Washington was treated to the presence of three former inhabitants of the White House: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Evil."
I can't help but feel that he could have been describing Google, Facebook and Microsoft: Don't Be Evil, Privacy is Evil, and Evil.
Oh wait, that did not turn out so well.
Google already has a social network. It's just not that great.
in an increasingly bipolar world ?
Insight into much, Influence over nothing !