So let's be honest with one another. The Internet is comprised of two essential giants with whom the rest of us typically choose one to interact with. These conglomerates are known to the public as Google and Yahoo!. They are the number 1 and number 2 hit websites (based on Alexa) on the entire Internet. This roughly translates to 3 billion search queries for each a month, and billions more hits with all of their other products. Google and Yahoo! are Internet landscapers, and they have seized control of more land than any other company to date. What are their impressions in the Facebook community, the measuring stick for today's popular opinion. With so many Internet users on Facebook, their opinion of these two giant sites have massive implications. Let us see who is the more liked company.
Google Saved My Life! (Found by searching "Google")
This group is much like many other groups that you will find on Facebook after searching the term "Google." The way that it is generally viewed by the Facebook community is in a very positive light. It typically helps large sums of people with finding information, or in this case, saving someone's life. Do not think this one group is fooling you either, for most groups about Google preach the same kind of message. This group's Description states:
If you've ever been in a crunch and needed to know something and you went to Google as a first instinct, join this group. If you often use "google" as a verb, join this group. If Google is the first page you see when you open a web browser, join this group. If you have the Google toolbar, join this group. If you think other search engines are called "YaWho?" and "MSWhen?", join this group. If you think Gmail is an exclusive email experience available by invitation only, join this group. If you can't imagine life before or without Google, join this group.
There are two administrators of this group that is in huge support of Google. The creator from the Maryland network is Courtney A. Hinton. Hinton is either no longer on Facebook, or I cannot access her account in any way, because there is no longer a link to it. The second administrator, Gregory A Hillard Jr from the Florida State University (FSU) network, has an active link. Not really sure what the deal is, however, it is clear from the Description how strongly Hinton feels about Google.
There are some fun Wall Posts that I will go into right now. All of them are applausitory and talk about small things that people do with Google that makes this resource so dear to them. Take Kristina T. of the University of Toronto for instance, "google is my home pageee ;)" That smiley face at the end really does me in. Amal Osman from Washington, DC explains how he used Google to help with homework one time:
In between switching classes I used google for homework for the class that I was gonig to. Time it took: 0.19 seconds What I searched for: "What is the capital of New Zealand?"
I passed that class very very narrowly because of Google.
The group is home to 542 members, and there are many many other groups that discuss the same ideas, yet just have different names. I think that it is clear that Facebook looks very positively on Google, which I think gives them extreme competitive advantage and brand loyalty over the coming years.
People against Yahoo buying Facebook (Found by searching "Yahoo")
Similar to the tactic I took when searching for a group about Google, this Yahoo! group is a good representation of a lot of groups that can be found on Facebook about Yahoo! (and not too surprising either). The creator of the group, Corey Fay from the Tarrant County network had the following Description and Recent News to provide:
Yahoo and Facebook are in talks. There is a proposed $1Billion price tag. This is getting rediculous y'all.
Fay obviously doesn't really like this move by Yahoo!, but I can't really come up with a good reason why not. It would be great for Zuckerberg to sell this homemade project for a billion plus. It shows young-American ingenuity, and gives evidence to the American dream (while Zuckerberg was a Harvard student, one could assume anyone could have made Facebook).
Fay takes a similar approach as me, however, which makes him look a little hipocritical, "As much as I would hate it, you have to look at it from the creators perspective. He would be set for life. If I were him even a group of 1,000,000+ people wouldn't stop me selling it for a billion dollars." Liz Williams of Iowa State provides the counterargument to this groups thesis:
what exactly would change about facebook if yahoo bought it?
There really aren't any counterarguments to Facebook selling itself to Yahoo! aside from the fact that it will be changing hands, and perhaps the culture of Facebook would change too. I'm not sure if thats a necessarilly valid argument, but regardless, Yahoo! receives most of its facetime on the Facebook via these allegations. With 150 members, this is a pretty solid group against Facebook being bought up by Yahoo!
I think its clear to see that the Facebook community has varying ideas of Google and Yahoo! Google is associated with positive feelings and helping the individual, and this is cited many times in different groups, whereas Yahoo! is typically spoken about in their capitilistic attempts to imbibe Facebook. This hurts a lot of Facebook user's feelings, and one can wonder whether this has long term implications on the user tendencies for Google or Yahoo! I wonder what percentage of Facebook users use Googe and Yahoo!? I wouldn't be surprised if it was much higher for Google use. Be smart. Be aware. Be the solution.
This post was originally written by The College Answers University of Michigan · Organizational Studies · 15 Oct 2007
