Google v. Facebook

It has become extremely obvious that the next big technology rivalry will be Google vs. Facebook. Some may question why Facebook would want anything to do with what Google is doing. That is not the way to view this. You have to question why Google would want anything to do with what Facebook is doing.

The answer has to do with a persons social graph, or the social information collected from a particular user. Google is betting that what your friends feel or think about particular things or products is valuable to search through. So much so, that they have acquired the Social Search Engine Aardvark and social networking startup Angstro.

They are doing this quickly due to their lack of social information gathered at this point. In order to provide a social search engine, you are going to need a base of a users social information, something that Google does not have, but Facebook does. All your friends, wall posts, images are in a repository that would make a wonderful base for a search engine if Facebook decides it wants to enter that arena. For a company that does not have a truly set business model, this may be a lucrative venture which would put them face to face with Google.

What would that mean? I see that as a interesting era for web and mobile application development, which we should be cautious about. Our personal information would be a commodity which can be used for or against us. Something to think about in that war of information.

Its obvious that these companies are in a collision course. I would just sit back and wait until that collision occurs.