Many people who read of the internet, want to make a killing on the internet and retire at 40 , and whom most likely are induced by the “Facebook movie” – believe all they read and hear.
Yet it was not long ago that Facebook was a minor player. It was a roster of people on the internet. Facebook rules were very strict. In essence they summarized – this is a roster, you are allowed one ( 1) account only. If we find you have more than one Facebook account you will be “banned for life” and worse.
Yet somehow facebook evolved into a community and advertising sales platform. At that point in time , several years ago – sure Facebook ads were cheap – especially compared to Google Adwords ads – yet they were laughable in terms of being horribly non-specific about targeting keywords and providing relevant results.
For example a user on Facebook might type in Viagra and the search engine ad system would deliver ads regarding Mexican vacations and holidays in Puerto Morelis Mexico or perhaps dealing with the cost of dental crowns and cosmetic surgery in Cancun.
Yet Facebook has grown to the point where Facebook estimates are more than 800 million users in total. Contrast that to the estimated population of 300 million in the USA & 100 million Mexican citizens.
Still these numbers must be put in context. Just like kids sign up for free yahoo and hotmail email accounts and forget them there are many dormant and duplicate Facebook users accounts.
Its anyone’s guess what the real Facebook members count really is.
One major point about Google and the assorted Google range of products online that many seem not to understand are two points.
One is that Google does not always innovate – frequently they follow the field – like Merck in the drug field they let others do the hard work and make the mistakes. Then they “move in”. The old business model was to let the innovators make all the mistakes and have the costs and then use “the proven model”. In 2010 or even in 1995 the old man’s marketing philosophy was the hold out of some old men who were clueless and living the life of perks on the top floor.
Google is somewhere in the middle . They pay great attention to trends and changes in the marketplace. Its not an old “lets wait and see” , but rather lets get at it right away and improve it !
Gmail was in “Beta version” for years. First it was invite only. Then testing. Then gmail by invite only. Whereas Microsoft bought an established product and when the time came for market upgrades ( as forced by Gmails advanced features and great amount of storage space added and on hand) just did not seem to be prepared in any manner.
It seemed to take forever for hotmail to do the upgrade and upgrades to the level of Gmail’s service and performance. Even then they made serious mistakes and flaws in the marketplace. One elderly women in fact was convinced that Microsoft had gone out of their way to wipe out the favorite photos of her grandchildren- targeting her specifically. Even though it was explained to her that a) she was getting the service for free and at no charge so that she was in no position to complain b) that as a consumer she was getting valued upgrades to service and in fact in her case she was on the early ( and trial and error) part of the curve c) it was her responsibility to download and save her attachments / photo files
In the end the hapless hotmail consumer , who after all was using the service of a most major company Microsoft – who indeed had great warning that Gmail with its advanced features and online storage capacities were on the way – blamed Microsoft / hotmail to no end . “Those Bastards” were her retort.
Still it is interesting that Microsoft seems not to have learned its lesson. It is currently re-branding its products on a regular and ongoing basis for some reason known only to Microsoft execs. Somehow hotmail / MSN messenger is now termed “Windows live”
To its credit , the brands still remain around due to the ubiquitous nature of being installed on most computer systems – that is with Microsoft operating systems today.
More of Google and its polices and strategies of innovation to follow
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