Salesforce and Facebook: Dating Now
February 17, 2011
A year ago, Salesforce.com discovered collaboration. The company hired a former journalist to be an evangelist. We were not sure how the marriage of trendy chat chat would fit with the wild eyed sales orientation of Salesforce.com. We still are not sure.
We did notice that Facebook has a brand new friend and they are working on a project together, so writes Read Write Cloud, “Salesforce.com and Facebook Strengthen Ties Through Force.com Platform.” The two companies are currently looking for an application developer who will maintain and develop Force.com applications for business and external purposes. At the moment, they’ve released the Facebook Toolkit in beta. It still needs tweaking, but both companies have high hopes for it. Items in the Toolkit include Auth 2.0, JSON, pagination, REST API, and extended pagination. According to the story:
“It [The deal with Facebook] shows the value Salesforce.com places on the experience that it wants to provide customers. And for Facebook it opens a new window for the reach of its service and integration with the modern enterprise.”
Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud champ and Facebook is the social networking king. Does this mean that Salesforce.com’s original strategy was flawed? Is there a benefit to Facebook from this deal that Salesforce.com may not see? Interesting tie up.
Whitney Grace, February 17, 2011
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Social Search Excitement
February 16, 2011
Rumors abound. Will Google or Facebook buy Twitter. The idea is that Twitter can do the news better than more traditional services.
Business Insider reports that “Whoever Gets Social Search Right Will Beat Google — Just Like Google Beat Alta Vista.” Quite an assertion. However, we’ve been monitoring the tense rivalry between Google and Facebook. Facebook has edged Google out as the most popular website due to its social networking functions. What’s interesting to note is that back in the 1990s when Alta Vista was searching content, Google realized the number of links on a page reflected it’s relevancy. After that epiphany, they controlled the web. Now social networking data is the factor that needs to be analyzed. If you figure out the formula for social searching, you’ve got it made. The write up says:
“To be really good, a social search site should also take into account a huge range of user behavior — text messages, IMs, opinions in online forums like Yelp, even online purchases — and somehow stitch all of those pieces of information together into a coherent view.”
Here’s another thorn in Google’s side, Bing and Facebook have a business relationship. Bing will incorporate Facebook’s information into its searches. Excitement ahead.
Whitney Grace, February 16, 2011
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A Facebook Revolution?
February 15, 2011
On a flight across the US this afternoon, I thought about “First Facebook SIM Card Released.” Facebook in firmware: An even bigger deal that the smart money at Kleiner Perkins pumping cash into the Facebook corporate body. What kept nagging at me was the Google Egypt revolution person talking about Facebook. Why didn’t the revolutionaries use Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo? I think the reason is that those services are like the old marketing chestnut: buggy whip businesses. The idea is that Facebook is the motor car and the buggy whip crowd needs to make seat covers or 20” inch wheels with flashing lights.
The SIM card underscores the opportunities Facebook creates as Googlers use Facebook, Microsoft cuts deals with Nokia, and Yahoo tries to reinvent itself more quickly than AOL. What occupied me was the steady push of social interaction on Facebook. Sure, there are many other successful social sites, but none has the motion picture, the smart money, and the exposure on 60 Minutes. I keep thinking, “Facebook was the method for some of the Egypt turmoil.”
Search, although interesting to me, was not where the action was in Egypt. The innovators were not cooking up a gizmo for Android. The Kleiner JP Morgan-tinged folks were not yammering about Google. Nope, Facebook.
As the jet lumbered along below its cruising speed ostensibly to arrive when a gate would be available, I formulated three thoughts:
- Facebook is going to rise and then fall faster than any of the other Internet super kids. But that exposure on 60 Minutes and that money suggest a collapse may take some time.
- Facebook morphs into an application platform with SIM gizmos becoming just the first of a series of innovations to make social interaction the cat’s pajamas for lots of people under 30. In short, a different type of revolution is brewing.
- Facebook becomes the tool for altering governments. No wonder France wants to censor the Internet. Facebook might be the method that will reinvigorate some ageing UCal Berkeley types and some unemployed youth in countries scattered far and wide.
What’s this mean? I am not sure, but I am glad I am not competing with Facebook. I am glad I am not a wobbly government. I am glad I don’t have to explain to investors why it took six years to invest in what looks like a company on the upswing. And what about Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo? Time to retool the buggy whip factories perhaps?
Stephen E Arnold, February 15, 2011
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Facebook: User-Centric Model
January 23, 2011
Allowing individuals to friend barely recognizable high school classmates and give scintillating updates on fetching lattes has garnered Facebook over 650 million global users and $1.86 billion in advertising revenue for 2010 says the recent Advertising Age article “Facebook Books $1.86B in Advertising; Muscles In on Google’s Turf”. eMarketer estimates that a majority of sales come from small- and medium-size companies making use of Facebook’s self-service system—territory that earned Google more than $200 billion in the last decade.
“Those advertisers are really juicing Facebook’s growth,” said Debra Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer. “They buy advertising in bulk. They’ve done it for years on Google, and now they’re taking that expertise to Facebook.”
More surprising is Facebook isn’t pandering to big brand advertisers to rack up revenue but continuing to focus on developing consumer-centric products that attract users. This makes us question whether this type of advertising opportunity is better than Google’s options. If Facebook remains attractive to advertisers and can up their response rate, they will pass Google’s benchmark.
Christina Sheley, January 23, 2011
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Content Freedom Threatened
January 15, 2011
I am not sure if I agree that Apple’s App Store is a threat to Internet freedom. “Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales: App Stores a Clear and Present Danger” voices this concern. I know that walled gardens are in the future. Money flows when folks control the customer. Loss of control of the customer spells trouble at some point in a company’s future. I think it is easier to make money when one has a customer list and keeps it secret.
Content is a magnet, so in order to increase the “pull” of content, walls are a useful architectural consideration. In fact, walls are going up everywhere. Facebook is a big walled garden. Oracle’s database is a big walled garden. Even open source friendly companies are going to need a walled garden. Without walls, an smart 20 something can nuke a business intentionally or inadvertently. Facebook, for example, wants to reinvent or support the reinvention of enterprise applications as social apps and services within its walled garden. How do you think that will work as more Facebook users enter the workforce. Even companies “on top of Facebook” are likely to have some heart stopping moments.
Here’s a snippet I liked from the article about Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales:
The app store model is a more immediate threat to internet freedom than breaches of net neutrality. That’s the opinion of Wikipedia chief Jimmy Wales. According to Wales — who was quick to stress he was speaking in a purely personal capacity — set-ups such as the iTunes App Store can act as a “chokepoint that is very dangerous.” He said such it was time to ask if the model was “a threat to a diverse and open ecosystem” and made the argument that “we own [a] device, and we should control it.”
Walled gardens are not new. As the competitive arena heats in the warm financial gusts flowing across certain areas of the online ecosystem, old style information silos are going to be built inside these walls. The challenge will be choosing which garden is the one to make home.
Stephen E Arnold, January 15, 2011
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Google and Multi-Community Content
January 15, 2011
I found Google’s patent application US20110010384, “Multi-Community Content Sharing in Online Social Networks” for two reasons. First, the inventors scattered across three Google offices. The participation of the Beijing engineer was interesting. Microsoft also seems to be tapping China for some of its ideas. Second, the invention points to social content federation. Here’s the abstract:
An online social networking system (100) can be used to distribute content within an online social network. The product comprises code for carrying out a method that begins with receiving content to be posted to a host community. Labels (420) are also provided to associate with the content. The labels (420) are used to identify communities in the online social network to which to post the content. Code is generated that, when executed, displays the content on a webpage of the host community, and displays the content on a webpage of each of the identified communities. The content may comprise one or more events, images, forum and topics.
Facebook does; Google describes. Which company has social momentum?
Stephen E Arnold, January 15, 2011
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Facebook and Social Services Value
January 6, 2011
BusinessWeek is raining on the Facebook / Goldman Sachs’ parade. My view is that whatever Goldman Sachs does is about money. Some folks forget that in my opinion. “Facebook at $50 Billion Looks More Like Tencent Than Google” is a pretty clever write up. First, the title makes the casual reader think of a cheapo metaphor. Tencent is a company, but I am not sure how many folks in Harrod’s Creek know that. Second, BusinessWeek thinks that the $50 billion valuation and the general hoo-hah about the Facebook / Goldman Sachs “deal” is “Buzz, Bloom, Hype.”
I don’t want to hop on the bandwagon. The more I think about deal, the more I think that the two best friends are taking steps to make sure that there is a big pay day. In addition, I think the BusinessWeek story and the other write ups are unlikely to do much more than fan the flames of excitement over Facebook.
The economic climate still troubles me. Bank types need deals. Facebook needs to keep rolling and grabbing mind share. I am not sure Facebook can pull off a deal with China. Russia already seems to be slipping away.
Get the money while the getting is good. The tactics unfolding now are tailored to the present economic climate. I am not sure there is much more to the valuations, the chatter, or the tie up beyond money. I will know if I am right or wrong soon enough.
The Facebook / Goldman Sachs’ affair may end up benefiting other social network services. Compared to the so so news from the consumer electronics show, at least the Facebook / Goldman Sachs’ tie up is interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, January 6, 2011
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The Facebook – Goldman Sachs Tie Up
January 5, 2011
The pundits are on the move. The cattle prod was the deal between Facebook and Goldman Sachs. Sure, a Russian outfit had its beak in the bird bath, but the real action was Goldman’s alleged $450 million. You can read “What Everyone Seems to Miss In Facebook’s Private or Public Debate…” and learn the real secret behind the deal: Accountability to its customers. Okay. The Reuters’ take is that the New York Times’s analysis is wrong headed. Interpretation of SEC rules, guidelines, and letters is a tricky even when the SEC tries to explain a point clearly. “Why Facebook Won’t go Public” makes the deal an exercise in fortune telling.
The view from Harrod’s Creek is different. Facebook is hot. Goldman Sachs wants a piece of the action and to be in a position of control or at least to have a shot at control. The reason for the deal is money. Mr. Zuckerberg and his band of Xooglers understand Goldman Sachs’ magic when it comes to money.
Customer care, SEC prose, and other explanations of the deal are groupthink. Why make more of the deal than it is: A deal about money for Facebookers and Goldman Sachs. What about the other investors? Maybe.
Stephen E Arnold, January 5, 2011
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Facebook Gouges Google TV
January 4, 2011
The basic information about Facebook’s TV service is set forth in “Reality TV for the Rest of Us.” The idea is that TV listings recommended by friends is better than slogging through lots of channels or, even worse, recommendations generated by a numerical recipe with thresholds that may or may not deliver what you expect.
This service is a fresh approach to finding. The method ignores the brute force indexing of some companies and relies on recommendations. The significance is that brute force search is not in the leadership position in terms of a social walled garden like Facebook’s.
The shift is going to be dismissed by Google. Google will attempt to slot social content recommendations into its services. Who knows? Maybe Facebook will implode. Google would then have a shot to get back in the game. I think that this “reality TV” thing is going to be as painful and damaging to Google as a world champion fighter getting a thumb in the eye and then losing vision in that eye.
Why?
First, lightweight. Recommendations are just less hassle than brute force search. Humans do the work. Volunteer work.
Second, relevance. What are friends for? People trust referrals from friends. Word of mouth works. Different and better than a numerical recipe. (Go ahead. Disagree.)
Third, fits core demographics’ established behavior. For those hooked on Facebook, having Facebook spit out TV shows when one is listening to music, texting, and doing homework is a really nifty attention deficit disorder service. I might be driven crazy. For Facebook’s users, the new service is likely to be a must use function. Habitual behavior means a big win for Facebook.
Google may have to go through its social life with one eye operating at 50 percent. Upside? Maybe Google won’t see all those Android devices using Facebook to find content on the vast wasteland?
Stephen E Arnold, January 4, 2010
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Facebook Productivity Tip
December 31, 2010
Listen up, Facebook users. Bogged down by the number of links shared by your Facebook friends? Well fret no more, TheLikeWall is here in an effort to save you time. Simply visit the website and login with the same details used for your Facebook account. The Like Wall will take tally of all the links your Facebook friends are sharing and rank them by the reactions other people have already recorded. So the most popular links are seated at the top of the list, allowing the less important ones to fall to the fray, thus saving you countless hours by knowing what isn’t worth looking at. There is not much to this… literally. Visit the website for yourself and see.
This service sounds useful enough. I’m afraid I cannot report I have conducted any tests or offer a proper review; I don’t have a Facebook account. My personal solution to wasting less time on Facebook is to never visit Facebook, but that’s just me.
Sarah Rogers, December 31, 2010
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