Facebook大战谷歌：硝烟再起

    2011年是Facebook公司历史上的一个好年头。这个社交网络以每几个月就增加1亿用户的速度持续增长。尽管股市大环境颇不景气，其首次公开募股（IPO）依然稳步迈向高达1,000亿美元的市值。而最引人关注的是，它已经让主要竞争对手谷歌（Google）疲于奔命。

    Facebook已将谷歌的一流工程师招至旗下，对谷歌的广告收益也虎视眈眈。更重要的是，Facebook迫使谷歌重新设计网页，以显得更社交化，更“Facebook化”。要想知道你是不是在抢对手的饭碗，最明显的标志就是看看他们是不是在模仿你。

    显然，2012年对Facebook就要残酷得多。美国市场的用户数量止步不前，广告收益也不如人意。从某项指标上看，它的首次公开募股甚至称得上华尔街史上最差。上周，Facebook首席执行官马克•扎克伯格表示，公司可能会引进搜索引擎来创收。

    这简直就像硅谷版的《怪诞星期五》（Freaky Friday）：白发苍苍的网络巨人和傲慢自大的网络新贵彼此交换了角色。社交网络用户增长1亿的是谷歌，市面萧条的变成了Facebook。（它的市值为480亿美元，仅相当于谷歌的五分之一。）两家公司甚至连言论都开始向对方看齐。拉里•佩奇把谷歌称作“社交的归宿”；扎克伯格则说：“搜索引擎正朝着给用户提供一系列答案的方向发展。比如，我有一个问题，引擎能帮我找到答案。”

    为什么会这样呢？一个原因是，两个竞争对手不可避免地要向对方的领域发展，甚至模仿对方。要想进一步了解这一方面的问题，不妨关注一下智能手机行业司空见惯的专利诉讼。【此外，据《财富》杂志（Fortune）2011年封面故事报道，两家公司的专利之争由来已久。】

    更重要的是，不论搜索引擎，抑或社交网络，本身都不是上佳的商业模式。人们蜂拥而至，使用Facebook和Twitter只是因为这类网站是通过朋友和联系人发掘新鲜娱乐方式的一个好去处。这种情况并不会让搜索引擎失去人气，只是让人们从网络上获取的内容变得更加丰富多彩。所以，谷歌和Facebook会不可避免地插手对方的核心业务。

    有人认为，搜索时代已经过去，网络的未来将属于社交网站，实际上这种观点也开始过时了。的确，比起搜索框，社交网络也许更能吸引人们流连忘返。不过他们点击那些恼人的广告所耗的时间也大大减少了。我们会去社交网络结识朋友，去搜索引擎寻找答案。所以尽管搜索行业即将灭亡的警告不时可见，但搜索广告依然表现良好。

    鉴于两家公司之间凸显的竞争关系，Facebook想要进一步打入搜索行业的计划看起来就像是递交了一份尴尬的投降书。不过就像佩奇决心发展社交网络以强化谷歌的全方位服务一样，扎克伯格将搜索当作促进Facebook未来发展的一个收入来源。考虑到Facebook迄今为止乏善可陈的股市表现，这个想法看起来不错。

    加入搜索引擎，这并不是Facebook模仿传统网络广告的唯一举措。几个月前，Facebook的广告竞价系统（Facebook Exchange）上线，允许广告网络使用用户的浏览历史记录，借以定制用户喜好的展示广告，放置在Facebook的新闻旁边。Facebook的广告竞价系统的工作机制酷似谷歌的广告交易平台（Google's Ad Exchange），在它的测试程序中，我们能看到增加广告点击率的蛛丝马迹。

    Facebook和谷歌在其他一些领域也存在竞争。比如Facebook的相册（Facebook Photos）和谷歌的图片管理工具（Picasa），Facebook的Facebook Messaging和谷歌的GTalk。此外，两家公司都在网络广告方面大量使用古老的方式——历史悠久的展示广告，这是将近20年前的东西了。

    2011 was a good year for Facebook. The social network was adding 100 million users every few months. It was on track for an IPO valued as high as $100 billion -- despite a dispirited stock market. And, perhaps most impressively, it had its archrival Google on the run.

    Facebook (FB) was hiring Google's (GOOG) top engineers and threatening to siphon off its ad revenue. Significantly, Facebook was forcing Google to redesign its sites to be more social -- that is, more Facebook-like. There is no clearer sign you're eating your rival's lunch than the sight of them emulating you.

    Of course, 2012 has been far crueller to Facebook. User growth stalled in its home market, and revenue growth disappointed as well. Its IPO was, by one measure, the biggest flop in Wall Street history. And last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that the company might introduce a search engine to drive new revenue.

    It's Silicon Valley's version of Freaky Friday: the aging web giant with touches of grey and the cocky upstart have reversed roles. The company adding 100 million users to its social network is Google. The company with the sagging market cap is Facebook. (Its $48 billion valuation is a fifth of Google's.) Both companies have even started to talk like each other. Larry Page describes Google as "a social destination" and Zuckerberg says things like, "Search engines are really evolving towards giving you a set of answers… like, I have a specific question, answer this question for me."

    What gives? One answer is that corporate rivals inevitably bloat their ways into each other's turf, even to the point of copying each other. For a clear illustration of this, look no further than the patent lawsuits that have become a staple of the smartphone industry. (Plus, as Fortunechronicled in its 2011 cover story, the battle has been a long time coming.)

    More importantly, neither search nor social networking is an inherently superior business model. People flocked to social sites like Facebook and Twitter because they were a great way to discover new diversions through their friends and contacts. But it didn't make search less popular. It just added to the flow of content people get from the web. So it was inevitable that Google and Facebook would move into each other's core businesses.

    In fact, the notion that search was dying and that the future of the web lay in social networks is itself starting to look outdated. Yes, people may spend many more hours on a social network than in a search box, but they also spend much less time bothering to click ads. We go to social networks to find people. We go to search boxes to find answers. So search ads -- despite warnings of the demise of search -- have continued to do very well.

    In light of the rivalry that has emerged between the two companies, Facebook's plans to push harder into search may appear like an embarrassing capitulation. But just as Page was intent on moving into social to strengthen its overall offerings, Zuckerberg sees search as one more revenue stream to feed into its future growth. And given Facebook's lackluster stock performance so far, it seems not a bad.

    Nor would adding a search engine be the only move that Facebook has copied from traditional web advertising. Several months ago, Facebook Exchange launched, letting ad networks use the browsing histories of users to target display ads next to their Facebook news feeds. Facebook Exchange, which works a lot like Google's Ad Exchange, showed early signs of improving ad-click rates in its beta program.

    Facebook and Google also compete in several other areas, with Facebook Photos taking on Google's Picasa and Facebook Messaging aping GTalk. And both have made heavy moves into an even more archaic form of web advertising -- the hoary old display ad, introduced nearly two decades ago.