Archive for google
Google shut out by Facebook’s iron information curtain
Posted by: | CommentsPosted on iMediaConnection.com
by Rich Cherecwich
on January 29, 2010
Expectations were high for Google’s new Social Search, which lets consumers search the content their friends produce on social media websites. But privacy restrictions at Facebook mean that Google’s tool isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and other social search tools are suffering as well.
Social Search, which searches content published on Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, and Picasa, only has access to Facebook’s public profile pages, which have very little information on them, according to a PCWorld report. Social Search only combs through public social media content, and since much of the information on Facebook pages is accessible only by signing in to Facebook, Google can’t include it.
Losing out on relevant data from Facebook — which has 350 million members worldwide — makes Social Search far less appealing, but Google isn’t the only search engine suffering from Facebook’s walled garden. Bing announced back in October that it would include Facebook status updates in its real-time search results, but it hasn’t happened yet because Facebook members can’t make those updates public.
The issue that search engines are dealing with is different from Facebook’s ongoing internal privacy policy. The social network is pushing its members to share their information with “everyone on the internet,” but it’s a misleading term. Sharing with everyone on Facebook means anyone on the social network has access to your information, but they must be logged in to see it.
Facebook currently has no plans to let its members make their profile information open to the entire internet, according to the report.
Signs the economy is on the rebound
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday there were a couple of strong signs that the economy is on the rebound. One consistent theme from many analysts has been a concern about the slow growth in consumer spending and the impact of 10% unemployment. American Express reported fourth quarter numbers yesterday, and they were promising. Profits more than doubled, driven by a surge in consumer spending and a reduction in expenses taken to account for potential future defaults. On top of that news, Google reported 17% growth in sales (their best in over a year) and a 5X rise in net income.
Consumer spending is on the rise. Businesses are advertising more. Sounds like the recovery is in progress. Let the good times roll!
