Social media poll (twitter, facebook, etc.)

I hate to phrase it this way buy how can't Facebook become more like Google(+)?  Once you have users a social networking service is just deciding how you let your users identify their contacts and how they communicate.  Facebook could decide today that they're just going to be a Google+ clone and in 3-6months their engineers and web design folks would give us a blue version of Google+ or Facebook+. 

 

In one of his only two meaningful statements yesterday Zuckerberg basically said that whatever they don't do they're going to partner with the people that do and won't throw them under the bus (jab at Twitter).  There's no reason to think FB couldn't lure anyone that isn't Google or Apple to their cause and duplicate any of the services.  The other interesting statement by Zuck yesterday was that they're no longer about user count (running out of first world people anyway) they're going to be about building things for their users.  So, two clear statements that they're going to be all about services.  That's if it wasn't clear enough already with their location check-in product; the FB currency (games, movie rentals, and beyond); the upgrades to chat and their quasi email project; and now with Skype.

 

FB won't beat Google at search and won't beat Apple in music but in two years they'll likely have just as many services and be good enough that your mother or grandmother (in the collective sense) will still be on Facebook like it's VHS in the early 2000s.  Again, Google+ looks great to me and I'll be giving it a go and hope that it does well enough that there's competition and a drive for innovation in the space.

 

But you're missing the Google+ point.  We have everything under one roof and dont have to partner with anyone to do it

 

F*ck.  I just wrote a long post and by accident hit another key and lost it!  The majority of google products compete with other products and they beat those products hands down.

 

They only place they are not winning is vs. itunes, but the fact that google music (beta) lets you sync your entire music library with itunes over the air without taking up space on your smartphone is genius.

This gets into a little bit of the business side of the equation, but is having it all in house better?  There are a good number of examples where this actually creates inefficiencies.  Google, while very good at the search game and decent at many others, may not be best served by trying to become a leader in all web based categories.  I actually think that Facebook, by reaching out to Third Parties, is operating on a better platform.  Why, if your Facebook, try to develop your own video chat service to compete with Skype and Google Voice when partnering with Skype allows you to leverage their expertise in video chat and apply it to your user network.  Skype can still focus on being the best video chat option, and that should be their goal, while expanding across Facebook to increase their penetration. 

Partnering with someone isn't a bad move.  It allows both companies to focus on their strengths without diluting their overall product.