Facebook is on its last leg. They are trying to salvage a fragmented community and broken business model.

• Posted by: Troy Duncan
• April 25, 2008 10:20 AM

And Google has forever moved away from their Googly core principle, the thing that made them Google: relevance-based advertising.

And notice that the ad that Google shows in response to this query is for "video ads". That's a total capitulation that video ads are not even going to pretend to be relevance-based.

• Posted by: JG
• April 25, 2008 1:19 PM

I doubt they are "buying" the advertising. I would think they can put their ads up for free, though not sure how they work out the placement issue.

• Posted by: SorenG
• April 25, 2008 3:40 PM

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Brand+Advertising&btnG=Google+Search

• Posted by: friendcredit
• April 25, 2008 6:29 PM

M vs G over, B vs G began. B’s E and G Comng, B is www.target.ing for G’s 52 high Fahrenheit

Stupid in-westers.

• Posted by: godfather
• April 25, 2008 6:42 PM

Not sure where to put this, or how to ask, have a feeling you guys might know . . .

I use Google constantly in my (electrical) business, trying to track down products. I notice if I enter a keyword, say "gibberish", I immediately get clickable ads saying stuff like "Get a great deal on gibberish at buygibberish.com!!", obviously repackaging my query to drag me down some sales channel. I've developed and tested some products I think will sell, now I'm brainstorming brand names. My natural instinct is to Google whatever I come up with, to make sure it's not already taken. Thinking about how that ad software must work though, I'm wondering if Googling my idea is the same as handing it over to somebody who will lock it up somehow so I have to buy it back from them (like the cybersquatters who already had my company name reserved). Am I just paranoid, or is it the case that every web query on any search engine is mined and sifted by searchbots for any bit of original content or potential marketing value, and immediately hijacked if worth something? Come to think of it, is it possible the domain name guys swiped my desired site name the moment I searched for it? Sorry if these are old, boring questions, not up on this stuff cause never needed to know before . . .

• Posted by: bentov
• April 27, 2008 10:01 AM

Hi bentov,

it's hard for me to answer your question -- but if you have a trademark that is being violated, then I think you need to defend it (AFAIK, it is a trademark owner's responsibility to police trademark violations).

If you are interested in having your domain appear near the top of a Google search engine results page (SERP), I would suggest to register a domain name that no one in their right mind would ever put into a search engine for any reason other than to find you (mixing up letters and number might be a good idea). Keyword domain names such as "books" or "homes" tend to be registered by leaders in the market and/or "subject experts" who develop such sites into vertical search engines -- and this will be come increasingly so as time goes on.

If you do not register a very unique domain name, I think you will need to spend alot of money to show up near the top of Google's search engine. I feel Google's audience is made up mostly of novice users who do not realize that they will have to pay a premium to buy products / services that show up near the top of Google's search engine (I guess that many such novice users might not even realize that a large percentage of advertisers on Google.COM seem to be something like scam artists).

I do not understand why you are worried about appearing as a top result on Google (especially considering that you may very well even appear next to such ppc spam results) -- could you explain that?

• Posted by: nmw
• April 27, 2008 11:07 AM

Its amazing to see how far facebook has come but It is definitely not on its way out. Trust me. I am a college student and I am constantly on facebook and the new Chat feature proves how often kids are checking their friends profiles and clicking away on advertisements. I mean, earlier today I had 62 people online on facebook that I was friends with. I just can't believe that facebook is right behind Yahoo on Google's search. Pretty Impressive for a college based networking website "on its Last Legs."

Also, any hockey fans out there... check out my blog!
http://bluelinetoblueline.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!
Matt

• Posted by: Matt
• April 28, 2008 12:15 PM

I have to agree with what matt has to say. Right now facebook I believe is at it's prime. They makers of it are coming out with new and different things to keep the users happy and still interested. So many older people are now created accounts so they can keep in touch with people as well. I personally enjoy having an account and I don't think I am going to get off of it anytime soon.

• Posted by: Kerry
• April 29, 2008 11:43 AM

I agree with Matt and Kerry that facebook is anything but on its way out. Recently my roommates father joined facebook to stay in contact with his son and business clients. Like Matt said facebook just recently introduced the feature of talking to friends online instantaneously. Users no longer have to worry about emailing or having AOL instant messenger. It will be hard to overtake facebook and put their network out of business.

If you would like to check out my New York Mets blog visit http://mk299mets.blogspot.com/

• Posted by: Justin
• April 30, 2008 3:10 PM