Facebook has exploded in media attention in the past few weeks reaching 500 million users, the release of "The Social Network" movie and a seemingly evolving trend shift from 'informational' to 'social' web searches.
Read this short paragraph. Notice the date:
Google has been an Internet leader for many years. So what's going on here?
This might strike you as a little crazy especially since some of you may not even have a Facebook account!
Assignment:
Read through all 5 links above before answering the questions. Most are short!
1. Do you think Internet use is changing? Yes or No. Why? Cite specific references to the readings (or provide new links) to support your answer.
2. How do these buttons factor into all this?
3. Predict how the graph will look for Google vs Facebook for the next 5 years. (Don't let the one article totally sway you!)
4. How will this affect YOU in your future use of the web?
Company blogs:
Google has been an Internet leader for many years. So what's going on here? 
1) The internet is changing and has started with the people who use it. As the articles said, Facebook is gathering data through the like button not just about what people are searching for but their actual interests. This can be used to enhance the effectiveness of ads, the main source of revenue.
ReplyDelete2) As I previously said, the like buttons allow Facebook to interact with people and the wider internet on a level that Google just doesn't have access. Ads can be adjusted to better suit markets and Facebook can organize information in a more accurate manner.
3) I think that Facebook will jump ahead rapidly in the next few years and continue to grow. Google will fall behind for a while then begin to close the gap. Facebook will probably continue to maintain the lead due to it's greater range.
4) I am somewhat protective of what I allow to access my Facebook profile and almost never "Like" pages whether or not they are native to Facebook. This transition towards a more public internet will make it harder to keep my privacy but besides from a larger visual intrusion by Facebook I don't think it will effect my personal web browsing too much.
1. I think that the Internet time overall is set more on Facebook, but Google is still a much bigger power and has more online resources, services, and products. People don't usually spend time on Google, but it still is used much more frequently by everyone on the internet.
ReplyDelete2. I think its cool to be able to "Like" something on Facebook, and have it integrated into many other sites. It's very popular to click all those little buttons but overall I don't think it really changes anything.
3. I think that time spent on Facebook will go up, but google will still grow as a company. Google isn't limited to the Internet, Facebook is.
4. Google is still Internet king. And everything king. Period.
1) No, the internet is not changing at all. It hasn't changed. The way we use is has though, we now use it more efficiently and for different reasons since it's conception.
ReplyDelete2) the problem with that picture you used as an example is that on most sites the google buzz button is not there. Google is not a main player when you find a cool blog or video. it's only Facebook Twitter.
3) Time spent on Facebook is not a comparable way of graphing the two sites. Of course people spend more time on facebook, you get on, you make a wall post, check out what your friends are you up to and then get off. With Google, the entire reason you use it is because they are the best at what they do. Their searches take less than a second. Of course people are gonna spend less time on google because they immediatly find what they want and they travel off the site. Common sense people, Google still wins.
4) Ian, I totally agree. Google FTW
1. The Internet is changing, but the change isn't because of a shift to Facebook, like the articles claim. Instead, Facebook has become a giant part of the internet on the "social" train, which has brought NEW USERS to the web! The integral "dirty" web is still there, along with the new sector of bloggers, and the even newer sector of social web. Facebook is just a part of a continual evolution - Google has hands in 99% of the web's evolution, while Facebook has a hand in maybe 25%.
ReplyDelete2. The buttons make it easy for those same "infant web" users, who don't have any deep interaction with computers beyond web browsing and word processing. It doesn't change how the web works in any meaningful way.
3. Facebook will grow bigger. The graph is obviously flawed in that Google spends all its time making web browsing simpler and easier so the user will spend time on the content that is created elsewhere. Google will grow bigger as well, as new users come online. It's impossible to tell what the exact graph will look like.
4. Web technologies come and go. As it stands, Facebook receives an incredible share of ire from web users about privacy and other usability issues. While Google isn't perfect, it actually listens to its users, rather than using them as a means to an ends. As long as that stays true, Google will always defeat Facebook in my mind.
1. The internet was originally established as a way for people in need to gather information. Now, as the articles have shown, the internet is a tool that companies utilize to get as much web traffic and money as possible. From Google monitoring your search results to Facebook tracking what you like, it is just a big competition. Companies such as Facebook and Google are copying even each others ideas in order to make themselves successful, such as Google creating a social networking site, and Facebook considering search engines.
ReplyDelete2. The buttons such as "like" provide a way for these internet companies to gather information about you, to get you to continue to visit their sites. It adds an interactive level to your web browsing, and makes you feel almost like you are talking to friends when you "like" something. They have become buttons that help define your personality.
3. Facebook will continue to rise, especially if they add new features, however, with Google adding new features as well, it line will rise also. Facebook will edge it out in the end though, because it has had the momentum, like a car. If one car stays at a constant velocity, and another one accelerates to catch up, when the accelerating one catches the constant one, the constant one will begin to accelerate. The second car(Facebook) will already have the momentum from its acceleration and will continue to rise faster than the first car(Google).
4. I try to keep my time on sites such as Facebook down to a minimum, but if Google and Facebook both continue to rise, they may well end up monoplizing the business, just how Verizon and AT&T have taken over phone companies for the most part. Eventually, no matter what you are doing, it will always be involved with one of those two sites.
1) I think the internet is changing because everyone is into the social networks like Facebook. All though Google in my opinion is still immense because people use it all the time to gather data. Although Google is not used like Facebook its more of a search and when you find it you click out of it to go to the site.
ReplyDelete2) I think these buttons are cool because your Facebook you click and "Tweet". So instead of searching the site on Google you just click on the button and BAM you can now "Tweet".
3) In my opinion Facebook will grow way bigger than Google but Google will get back up there. It might be soon or maybe in 5 years no one really knows because it can just sky rocket like Fcaebook did.
4) Well in my social time sometimes i'm on social networks. If Facebook continues to grow instead of texting we might be on Facebook 24/7.
1. Yes the internet use is changing. People use the internet as more of am entertainment and leisure type of resource since social networking sites have come up like facebook. http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/facebook-v-google-a-showdown-of-paradigms/ In this article it is shown that people use searches with the modified and more controlled searches with facebook as where google uses algorithms to find the best suited search based on a general term, not specifics.
ReplyDelete2. The buttons that factor into this in a massive way. The simple "like" button is said to be installed on 350,000+ websites. This increases the traffic and relations to facebook tremendously. It would definitely increase their technical size compared to google. Even though google has the "buzz" button it is not nearly seen as much as the "like" button.
3. The facebook curve will continually go up because of the expanding need for people to fit in. It has generally become a social norm for everyone to have a facebook. As people grow older they become qualified to have a facebook and that will always increase. The google curve will go up as well if they took into consideration of all the things that google has a part of without the google name like "youtube." The web traffic is tremendously more than that of face book when combined. Considering in 2007 the average amount of unique users per week was 19million when you think about inflation and add in the amount of unique users that use google it comes up to about 140 million unique users per month compared to facebooks' 132 million unique users per month. Google takes the cake in amount of users but the amount of time spent online is greater with facebook not because of the searches but because of the capabilities of chat and people are much more likely to leave it open for a much longer period of time even being idle on their computers.
4. This won't effect my future use of the web at all. I will still leave facebook up but to increase the average time spent on google i will leave a search up as well.
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ReplyDelete1. Internet use isn't exactly changing so much as expanding. I can remember back when Myspace was getting to be a huge internet sensation, and thinking a) thats ridiculous and b) that it was just another perk of the internet. While the internet was primarily to be used as a way to gather information, with Google, all Facebook has done is add another realm of the internet that in reality is like e-mail only more efficient in most cases. Changing, no. Expanding, most definitely.
ReplyDelete2. Buttons like the "like" button in my opinion are a blessing to advertisers and an extreme annoyance to people like me who quite honestly doesn't care that when you turn your head to the side "ok" is a little person, nor do I care that you were in complete awe when you found it out. However, back to the advertising companies, according to my understanding, when you like something, like a drum corps, on Facebook, more marching band/music related adds come up. Also, in Google world, when you search something, like "cures for the swine flu," Google can figure out how often that is searched for, based on location, and know what sorts of ads are necessary for each location. Not as personal, yet still effective.
3. I think that the only way to compare Facebook and Google is in they are extremely powerful and wealthy internet companies. Sine Facebook is a social network, I feel that it will continue to grow as a social network and maybe expand to a mediocre search engine, but Google will reign supreme in that area, and probably try and expand on its own social networking idea. In regards to what they do best, Google will win in search engines and Facebook as a social network.
4. I will use Facebook for longer amounts of time, but will still go to Google for information more times than not.
Side note: in regards to current size of each site, when I Googled "Facebook" I received 2,570,000,000 hits. When I Facebooked "Google" I received only about 25,000 results. When I Googled "Google" I received 1,380,000,000 hits, and when I Facebooked "Facebook" I received about 144,000 results (some applications others pages). Therefore, in the argument of which is bigger, both web entities agree that Facebook is bigger than Google.
ReplyDelete1. Judging from everything I know about the internet and how everybody I know uses it, I'd say yes, internet use is changing. Internet itself is not however, simply because in the research conducted by the American Life Project found on, http://www.pewinternet.org/Infographics/2010/Internet-acess-by-age-group-over-time.aspx, it shows how the majority of internet use is done by teens. As stated by the same website, "Nearly three quarters (73%) of online teens and an equal number (72%) of young adults use social network sites." In my opinion, I do not believe that internet is being used by teenagers and young adults for what it was intended for.
ReplyDelete2. Personally, I do lots of research, both for my personal gain and for my school classes. I'd say on about 20% of websites, you'd see one of these buttons which would re-direct you to the instructed link. It just so happens on the Facebook Vs. Google link, there is a 'Twitter' button. I don't think that putting those buttons on informational websites is what was intended for. Yet you're on the website to be educated, why does that link have to be there? And is it just me or at the bottom of the blog is there a 'Like' button!?
3. I infer judging on the articles and my prior knowledge that since Facebook was new, of course it was going to rise rapidly and continue for up to a year. On the other hand, I believe that it will continue for about another apporximate year or less, then it will steadily level out because other websites are going to come out and who knows what the future will hold for gaming, technology, Apple, and even yahoo. Yahoo has never been as big as google but why is that? It has everything Google and Facebook has plus Youtube, Skype, ESPN, and even LINKS to Facebook, Twitter and Ebay. The internet is not limited, but I hope to see Google steadily become more popular then Facebook.
4. Honestly, I don't think Google and other important websites are getting enough recognition that they deserve, they are so much more important then Facebook. Social networking can be important, but teenagers use it far too much when they should be studying, yes I know I may sound like a teacher or parent, but it's the truth. When I think about it, I am being sort of a hypocrite, I have a Facebook and truthfully I go on more then I should when it starts interfering with other of my duties, its a bit much. Therefore, as I did with my myspace, I probably will delete it, I debate it, like my brother says, "Facebook wasn't meant for a bunch of teens to go on and answer stupid questions about each other when there's texting, email, and regular old telephone for that. I say it was meant for old high school friends and responsible adults, such as myself, to be able to connect with each other because they don't have time to 'hang out'." I respect my brother, hence the reason I usually listen to him and I'd have to agree with him on this topic of matter.
1. Of coarse the internet is changing, it is not a static tool, it will change for ever. You can look the the articles you provided to see how Google and Facebook are changing and there are just a part, and not even a very big part of the internet. Note, Facebook and Google are big, but the internet is... huge, they are like whales in the ocean.
ReplyDelete2.The like buttons are a neat for people to use and direct attention, but I dont think have as much of an affect as people think. Just because people click the like button, they dont like something any more then if there was no option to. What it does do though is show the growth of Facebook, out into other sites, and Facebook users, which if directed by Facebook could shouw how one site can corral people.
3. I think it will look like a "U", yes Facebook will grow, but unless they can do what they say there planning on doing people will get bored of it, it will turn into a Myspace. As where there will always be a need for Google, so it may go up but I think it will for the most part stay where it is at.
4. You need to think of the internet like the Cell Phone, and Google like talking and Facebook like texting. Even though people may be texting a lot more the talking, people will always need to talk, people do not have to text. Example, your not going to text the fire department "I is N' Fires... Help Me!" but you could call your friend rather then texting them. You do not need to have Facebook and the games and chat with your friends (It is nice, but not needed), but you do need a search engine like Google.
1) No, i dont think the internet is changing, Although the way people are using it might be. In my opinion the internets main purpose is to spread news and help people reserch information. But people now days are starting to use it socially weather its facebook, myspace, twitter ect.
ReplyDelete2) Those bottons give the chance for users to give there opinion on whatever they research witch is usefull sometimes because then it narrows down there likes to make theyre next search easier.
3) I think Google will struggle for a year or two, keeping up with Facebook. But just like myspace, i think facebook is going to wear of and people will start checking it less and less everyday.
4) It really wont affect me simply because i really dont use facebook and i dont think i will ever need too.
1. YES, The internet is changing more americans spend more time on facebook than google, that right there should tell you its changing. More poeple are on social networks than looking for information. It use to be where it would be a place where people would go to only research things, now its basicly tied into everypart of our lives.
ReplyDelete2. The like botton by facebook it good for us, because the more we like certain things, the more the adds will be for us, thus making it so the companys make more money because more poeple will click on adds for products they like.
3. I think FACEBOOK is just a Fad, but google is here to stay beacuse it actually helps us, not just contect us to peoples live. Google is a place where we can find information!
4. I will prob. stop using facebook in college, and i will use google alot in college to help research papers and such.
^^^^got it in with 10 mins. to spare^^^
ReplyDelete1. Do you think Internet use is changing? Yes or No. Why? Cite specific references to the readings (or provide new links) to support your answer.
ReplyDelete-Personally, yes I do think that the "face" of the internet is changing. When originally created, the purpose of the internet was to "link" all the computers of the world to further the collaboration of information. While having served its initial purpose quite well, it has evolved into something much different. "The people are the mob, control the people and you control the mob, and they will love you for it..."
2. How do these buttons factor into all this?
-The "like" button plays manny roles, many known to the public and some not so much. While it allows FaceBook users to compare likes and interests amongst other users, it also provides information to "Site Mediators" as to the interests of the "mob" . It in itself, and almost by definition, creates a sort of "artificial intelligence". While still being bound to the user, the AI "reads" the likes of the user and allows itself to build upon that platform. A good example is the new google search engine called Bing. Each time the user types stuff into the search engine it "records" and saves that data to personalize searches for later use. so for example, if a person really liked dogs and constantly researched about them using Bing, then the searches would lean more towards an animal aspect and eventually weed out other things not pertaining to the search topic.
-my computer is being stupid, im going to send this stuff so i dont loose my work and finish answering in another post.
1. I do think the internet is changing. People are now using the internet as a source of entertainment instead of a source of information. That's why the amount of time on facebook has been surpassed by google.
ReplyDelete2.Those buttons show just how much the internet now values social networks. That now when we read news articles we have an opportunity to advertise it on our social networking sites, spending more time doing leisure activities like facebook than actual research with google
3.I think facebook will continue to have more time spent on it, and will eventually gain a slightly bigger lead until both of them level off. I also predict a totally new website coming out from the shadows that will start to compete with those two giants and eventually over take them both.
4. It certainly won't change the amount of time I spend on each site in the short term. However, I think that google and facebook will continue to compete for top spot on the internet, releasing new apps and uses for each of their sites.