As Google and Facebook square up to each other it will be interesting to see how this competition influences their evolution.
They each have a fundamentally different point of departure. Google is a search engine dabbling in social media, Facebook is a social media platform dabbling in search.
Google relies on its algorithms, it has a completely data driven approach. Facebook on the other hand relies on curatorship, wherein people who are networking are creating and managing the content.
But as time goes by, Google is looking more and more at how people are consuming information to determine what they might find useful. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is all about manipulating the algorithm to surface your content first and Googlites are in the unenviable position of trying to find the most relevant information for their digital consumers, rather than surfacing the content from organisations with the biggest SEO budget.
Google is now starting to look beyond metadata, traffic and links to how digital curators manage information during the social network process.
Facebook on the other hand, is looking at using the data it has around social networking to create a useful search facility based on what your friends are posting, reading, sharing, liking and commenting on.
In other words Facebook is betting on human curatorship to move towards becoming the ubiquitous application that we turn to as our portal to the digital world. Google, in turn, is looking to enhancing its algorithm using behavioural data to enhance its value to the user.
They both are rushing to the middle, and it will be interesting to see what they look like when they get there.
About Digital Bridges
Digital Bridges creates high performance organisations by unlocking the business value of the web. We create digital strategies, user requirement and functional specifications for Intranets, websites and web applications. We also develop and implement social media strategies and create powerful digital brands using eMarketing and Communication and manage brand conversations with consumers.
Digital Bridges approaches the web from a management consulting position and relies heavily on rigorous academic thinking as well as business experience. It is headed up by Kate Elphick who has a Law degree and an MBA from GIBS. Kate has spent the last fifteen years of her career on the business side of the IT industry with companies such as Datatec, Didata, Business ConneXion and Primedia.
Digital Bridges has a broad range of experience working with significant, successful clients in the Financial, Gaming, Tourism, Pharmaceutical, ICT, Legal, Airline, Professional Services, Media and Public Sectors.
To find out more about Digital Bridges, please visit www.digitalbridges.co.za or contact Kate Elphick on katee@digitalbridges.co.za