When it comes to tech, my interests fall squarely between the search engine and the social network, knowing full well that they will eventually converge into something greater than the sum of its parts. Given my fascination with the possibilities of social search, it has been nearly impossible to take my eyes off of my RSS reader for the past week and a half.
Microsoft is back in pursuit of Yahoo, while giving hints that it’ll lunge for Facebook if that falls through (again). Facebook demonstrates its brazen disregard for old (highly profitable) web business by reiterating its desire to stay independent from Microsoft and by shutting its doors to Google’s data portability pitch, Friend Connect. Google seems poised to save Yahoo from a looming acquisition… and it goes on and on. Indeed, the personalities of these companies are highlighted vividly as they engage in this sort of soap operatic behavior.
It makes me wonder if history is repeating itself when I look back at Google’s toddler years, before keyword bidding had given it a business model, and when Yahoo didn’t take search engines seriously. See, Yahoo turned down Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s offer to sell the Stanford search technology outright for $1-2 million because portals were the bread winners and search engines were seemingly just a fad. Today, tech pundits are speculating that Facebook, essentially a portal, can’t support its atmospheric $15 billion valuation without a dramatically more lucrative revenue model, such as that of a search engine. Is Facebook the next Google or is it an anti-Google?
Regardless, something will be the next Google and my money is on some power marriage between social and search.
Comments
John said:
Definitely. The conversations are swirling around (both below and above) us. So, where does Viewzi stand (in the gap, perhaps?).
Posted on May 21, 2008 at 3:29 PM
AJ said:
I suppose it is yet to be seen. As it stands, Viewzi is somewhere in the gap towards the search engine side of things. At some point, there may be no gap and Viewzi could be right on top of it. That’s my hope anyway.
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 11:41 AM