Microsoft Corp. and Facebook, the one-time technology king and the claimant to the throne, are forming an increasingly unified front in the battle for industry supremacy against Google.
The software and social-networking giants have announced a series of partnerships in recent months, including the integration of Facebook user data into Microsoft’s Bing search engine results and the use of its Office applications in the Face-book’s forthcoming communications service.
No single initiative announced so far represents a clear game changer, analysts say. But Microsoft lends some hefty industry support to a Facebook vision of the Internet that’s far different from the one that fostered Google’s rise, some argue.
“When you add all of these up – and there seem to be more of them every week – then it really is a very substantial threat to Google,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst with Gartner, said of the collaborations.
He and others believe that cues in social networks, like a friend’s links and “likes,” are becoming increasingly important guides to the Internet experience, which could over time undermine the importance of the online searches that Google has long dominated. If so, it might become increasingly difficult for Google to sustain the growth in its core business, and it could give Bing a powerful advantage, because its search results now incorporate the preferences of a user’s friends.
But, of course, those are all big ifs, mights and coulds.
Bing relationship
For one, the premise assumes that Google won’t develop its own social capabilities – and it’s known to be pouring resources into that effort – or strike a similar deal with Facebook. It’s unclear whether the Bing relationship is an exclusive one. Microsoft referred the question to Facebook, which didn’t respond to an inquiry.
It’s also notable that even with the rise of Facebook, marked by a six-year sprint to more than 500 million users, Google’s advertising revenue from keyword searches continues to swell. Meanwhile, it’s demonstrating an ability to generate money outside its core business, saying during a the third-quarter conference call that display advertising and mobile revenue reached $2.5 billion and $1 billion, respectively, on an annualized basis.
Open or closed
“As the Web evolves – from mobile to video to display ads to cloud computing – our business grows with it, and the results speak for themselves,” a Google spokesman said. Cloud computing includes online data storage and the use of Web-based software instead of applications installed on individual computers.
Google has stressed in the past that its philosophical approach to technology differs fundamentally from those of key competitors, dubbing Google an open system that allows users to control their information and other companies to adapt the software as they see fit. By extension, it has suggested or stated that companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Apple generally operate closed systems that tightly control user data and experiences.
There’s ample debate, however, over the appropriate definitions of open and closed systems, and whether Google too sometimes acts like the latter when it fits its interests.
Odd couple
The odd-couple Microsoft-Facebook relationship goes back to 2007, when Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook for $240 million, beating out competing offers from Google and Yahoo. Microsoft now sells search advertising and provides search technology on Facebook; it linked the social network’s feeds into the latest version of its Office applications; and it integrated Facebook Chat into its own Messenger product.
Microsoft announced earlier this month that Facebook’s forthcoming Messages service, which will combine instant messaging, texting and e-mail, will incorporate Office Web Apps. That will allow users to view – but not edit – Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents within the browser, rather than forcing them to open the files with a desktop application.
Source:http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7313086.html
