Will Google Own Facebook?
The other day TechCrunch had a post about the who might buy Facebook. The company that they consider to be the “obvious candidate” is Google. I don’t know if I think Google is interested, but they do have some good points. For one, according to comScore Facebook is the number one photo sharing site with more than 6 millions photos uploaded each day. On a side note, that is absolutely insane when you think about it. When Google bought YouTube they secured dominance in the online video marketplace. Given that MySpace recently bought Photobucket, Google could buy a major player in the social networking space AND dominance in online photo sharing. The question is, do they want to? Google is already involved with photos through their Picasa photo organizer. They also offer online sharing of them via Picasa online albums. I don’t know an exact number, but I think there is all of three people using that. Also, in the second half of 2006, Google bought Neven Vision which makes technology for recognizing items in photos to allow for better organization. These all show that Google does have an interest in photos, but is it a big enough interest to make them buy Facebook.
With Facebook there is also the social networking aspect. Google currently owns Orkut, but unless you’re in Brazil you’re not likely to know anyone using it. With Facebook would come all of its users. That is a big number of people that would see Google’s ads. Orkut does show, though, that Google has at least a dabbling interest in the social networking scene.
As a user of Facebook, I could not think of anything that would make me happier than Google buying them. I still think that Facebook is a wonderful service and site, even though I don’t use it as much as I used to. On their own, they are managing to do a really good job of making a great service. But let’s face it, I love Google and want them to take over the world. I can only imagine that if they did acquire Facebook that only good things could come from that.
All of this is speculation, obviously, as Facebook could be grabbed by someone else, or they could go the IPO route. Zuckerberg has said that he wants to keep the company independent, but as TechCrunch accurately points out, it really isn’t his choice to make. His investors are the ones that will make the final call, and at the end of the day they are looking to make the most money possible. With Google’s giant stacks of cash, they could easily provide that.
With Facebook there is also the social networking aspect. Google currently owns Orkut, but unless you’re in Brazil you’re not likely to know anyone using it. With Facebook would come all of its users. That is a big number of people that would see Google’s ads. Orkut does show, though, that Google has at least a dabbling interest in the social networking scene.
As a user of Facebook, I could not think of anything that would make me happier than Google buying them. I still think that Facebook is a wonderful service and site, even though I don’t use it as much as I used to. On their own, they are managing to do a really good job of making a great service. But let’s face it, I love Google and want them to take over the world. I can only imagine that if they did acquire Facebook that only good things could come from that.
All of this is speculation, obviously, as Facebook could be grabbed by someone else, or they could go the IPO route. Zuckerberg has said that he wants to keep the company independent, but as TechCrunch accurately points out, it really isn’t his choice to make. His investors are the ones that will make the final call, and at the end of the day they are looking to make the most money possible. With Google’s giant stacks of cash, they could easily provide that.
posted by Jeremy at
8:42 AM
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