The world’s biggest social media site, Facebook, are to dump Microsoft adCenter as they prepare to launch their own advertising platform. But with the original deal not running out until 2011, full worldwide Bing integration appears to have been the real deal sweetener.
Evidently the Facebook site is a lucrative place for any advertiser to show their products and is equally effective in delivering money to the host – Microsoft. However, in something of a surprise move, Facebook have ended their agreement with the technology giant to manage their advertising system in-house.
With a year left in the contract, clearly Microsoft will seek something in return and it appears as though it may come in the form of Bing being integrated into Facebook as the default search engine, worldwide. Obviously the exact nature of the agreement is still largely under wraps, but it appears that Bing could be set for a huge promotional push, starting off with 350 million+ Facebook users.
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As Social Media continues to expand and lure in vast volumes of Internet traffic, where does its fustier, slower (methodical if you will) and more derided website marketing compadre, SEO, now fit in?
Search Engine Optimisation has been saddled with a reputation for being something of a shadowy practice; online alchemy, created to appease the search engine gods. The thing is though, it works. Better still, it continues to work to this day.
Social Media has emerged from the Friends Reunited Petri dish and exploded into a full-grown living organism, consuming everything in its path; or, at least, nearly everything. Facebook has experienced the most meteoric of rises, propelled by the slipstream of fading stars like MySpace, it has slipped seamlessly into the top 3 sites in the world (2nd by some metrics, 3rd in others) and gained itself over 350 million users.
Thanks to Facebook, along with Twitter, YouTube and a whole multitude of bookmarking cohorts, Social Media has got the world communicating in real-time. This free network of conversations has engulfed the Internet and opened the door of opportunity to marketers. Inevitably, when something huge comes to dominate an entity as the Internet, something has to make way; but is that thing SEO?
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Social media has the Marmite effect; either you love it, or you hate it. General indifference seems hard to come by and as such this polarising effect has been reflected in the modern workplace.
Some businesses can’t get enough of social media. Employees are actively persuaded to get involved in online conversations and whole departments have been generated to work as a sort of sales/marketing/customer service/PR hybrid team of tweeters. Others though are quite the opposite. Employers are blocking access on office machines and handing down severe punishments for unauthorised usage.
Invariably, as you are reading this, you too will have your own opinion on the value of social media in the workplace. It is a seemingly very insignificant debate, but is one that has been thrust into significance due to the amount of coverage it receives. Again, this coverage tends to highlight the two extremes, one full of saccharine sweetness the other disdainfully sour; balance and neutrality are difficult to achieve in this debate, which is why it largely remains unresolved.
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It appears that real-time search could finally become a reality. Following our post earlier in the month, Twitter negotiating real-time search deal with Microsoft and Google, it looks like the ink is now drying on an agreement that will see the aforementioned search engines gain complete access to the social media site’s network.
This is a brave new world for search engines and could well change the way we view and use SERPs in the future. Bing and Google are now free to start developing ways to incorporate Twitter feeds into their searches, opening up unique opportunities for the respective engines and their users.
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From the outset social media was created to link people together. Whilst Friends Reunited touted the idea of finding long lost classmates, Facebook was connecting students in Harvard. But somewhere along the line, boundaries between harmless conversations and prolific publicising have become blurred.
Nobody can argue that there are fantastic opportunities to be gained for businesses using social media and that their influence can be a positive one – providing discounts, useful information and a right of reply – but is there a danger web 2.0 overkill will eventually be its downfall?
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One major issue facing social media platforms is how exactly to monetise their services. Subsisting on investor funding isn’t sustainable, so turning the corner and making a site profitable is a significant priority, but one which many struggle to achieve.
For many years YouTube was a cash cow for Google. Whilst it was widely used and hugely popular, the video sharing site just couldn’t find a way to turn that into hard currency. In fact two months ago to the day, in a strange piece of social media circularity, it was announced that Facebook had 250 million users whilst YouTube were on the verge of making profit. Today, Facebook has reached 300 million users and is itself the one who is ready to start funding itself.
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It appears that America’s politicians are having a few communication issues this week. Following hot on the heels of warning teenagers about the dangers of sharing too much information on website’s such as Facebook; it is now Barack Obama who has fallen foul of a random outburst.
Mr Obama had talked to students on a number of issues, one of which centred on what it takes to be a President. In response he said:
“Well, let me give you some very practical tips. First of all, I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life.”
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The buzz surrounding social media has reached near hysteria. Every day there are tales of people earning fortunes whilst others are having their lives ruined by sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Few would doubt the potential for generating new business that social media offers. There’s a huge audience to tap into and the freedom to approach them, you can start networking and create brand new opportunities for yourself or your company.
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Google and Facebook both represent the dominant leaders in their respective fields. So complete is their dominance in fact, that people have begun audibly questioning whether they are in fact a force for good, or evil.
The prime fear where both are concerned is with regards to data. Google has indexed billions of website pages, making it privy to a lot of information; all of which could, in theory at least, be used for dangerous profiling purposes. Google Earth has also caused uproar with claims that it is helping criminals pick targets and is another major invasion of privacy.
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Just when the world of social networking seemed to be channelling towards Facebook and Twitter, the old guard have taken new steps toward regaining prominence. Swiped from under the noses of Facebook, MySpace are on the verge of purchasing iLike.
To most that probably doesn’t mean a great deal; however iLike is one of the most popular apps currently featured on Facebook. It allows users to share their favourite songs with friends and give an insight into their musical taste. MySpace is already very much the social networking site of choice for many music and video aficionados; by being able to provide exclusive access to iLike, they could well corner this market and subdue Facebook momentarily.
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To celebrate the launch of the new Impact Media Fan Page on Facebook, Impact Media will be giving away a big hamper of sweets to one lucky Facebook fan once the target of 100 fans is reached.
It won’t cost anything to become a fan, and will only take a few seconds to do, but it could lead to winning a fantastic prize just for showing up.
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Twitter’s rise up through the social media rankings has been nothing short of phenomenal. Backed by a plethora of tech savvy celebrities, the take-up of the micro-blogging service has touched every corner of the globe. But is it an empire built on sand?
From the outside everything seems to be ticking over quite nicely. The site continues to earn new users and is now ranked the 19th largest on the Internet (according to Alexa), so on the face of it everything is going swimmingly. But there are undoubtedly issues, some that could ultimately undermine the service into obscurity.
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It didn’t take long did it? No sooner had Facebook snapped up FriendFeed than they incorporated their live feed style in a ‘Lite’ version.
This stripped down Facebook is only currently available to a selection of Beta testers, of which I am not one, and is offering a service not too dissimilar to Twitter or FriendFeed. The rolling feed of news from contacts isn’t interrupted with irritating applications and endless tabs; just a stripped down communication portal.
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For so long industry types have mooted the next Google-killer, but today, with the announcement of the new and improved Google Caffeine project, the shoe appears to be firmly on the other foot. Rumours are abound that this could be the update that undermines SEO as it stands entirely; a completely new search logic that will require a completely different approach.
But putting conjecture and hearsay to one side for a moment, what is Google Caffeine really all about? Well, fundamentally its main purpose is to increase speed and improve results; nothing wrong with that at all. Relevancy and quality are also coming under the spotlight, particularly with news stories, with Google giving extra weighting to those sources it considers superior – not all that different to how it operates currently in truth.
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Facebook appears to be an unstoppable juggernaut of a website. It has already dwarfed all of its social media peers, but that, it seems, just isn’t enough. With the acquisition of FriendFeed, Facebook may have just played their greatest masterstroke.
There’s probably a fair percentage of people reading this who don’t have the first idea what FriendFeed is; don’t worry, you’re far from alone. Essentially, FriendFeed is a real-time aggregator; pulling in news and updates from various sources and channelling through a single hub. The instantaneous feed has bought many comparisons to Twitter, but before it could really get huge, it has been snaffled up by Facebook.
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