Data Hoarding In The Social Age

The social war is heating up. Facebook has long had a feature that permitted its users to import their GMail address book to help link friends.

Last week, Google changed its Terms of Service agreement requiring any service that imports Google Contact lists to allow Google the same type of access. But Facebook won't 'share' contacts with Google's GMail service.

In response, Google attempted to block Facebook, but Facebook has seemed to find a workaround.

Google's Response:

We’re disappointed that Facebook didn’t invest their time in making it possible for their users to get their contacts out of Facebook. As passionate believers that people should be able to control the data they create, we will continue to allow our users to export their Google contacts.

It will be interesting to see how this battle unfolds. If you were at Google, how would you respond?

Search is turning 'Social'

Microsoft just got a bit cozier with Facebook a new search deal.

Now when you search with Bing, you have the option of using Facebook and Twitter to enhance search results.

Instead of partnering with Facebook, Google appears to be enhancing its social presence by leveraging its current products and with acquisitions.

Which firm is in the best position to win the battle for social search?

The explosion of digital information has provided many opportunities for data driven startups

“We’re producing data at an amazing rate. In fact, humans generated more data in 2009 alone than in the entire history of our species up to that year, according to Amazon’s former chief scientist Andreas Weigand. And IT firm EMC projects the quantity of digital information we produce will grow by a factor of 44 between 2009 and 2020.”

Ken Elefant of Opus Capital outlined three market trends that startups are using to enter what he calls the "big data" markets:

• Data Accessibility
• Data Control
• Better Tools, Better Business Insights (Analytics)

Startups have recently gained ground by providing a business model that uses at least one of these three methods. Although this is the current trend of monetizing vast amounts of data, what does the future hold for data driven startups?

Facebook vs. Apple

Was the new and improved Apple TV the most interesting announcement that Apple made today, or what it something else?

Yesterday, I wouldn't really have considered Facebook and Apple competitors, but today's announcement of Ping may change that.

Facebook has a huge social network platform, but has been struggling to monetize it. Apple has a powerful payment and content platform, but no significant social network.

Which position would you be rather be in?

How Much Are You Worth to Facebook?

(Posted by R.J. Lehman)

I came across this FastCompany article and thought I’d share it. It raises some interesting points and questions that I thought might have relevance later on in the semester.