Google v. Facebook in the Advertising Field

I know this might be a kind of a stretch when it comes to finding a new company in the retail industry, but I thought this was very interesting and can be applied. We're all so used to Google advertising to us depending on what we search. Those top couple links aren't actually the number one search, but companies who paid for their link to be placed at the top so that you might just click on it. It's quite a clever advertisement, but now it seems that companies are picking a different internet forum for these ads- Facebook. The (just over 5 years old) social networking site has added a new application called "places" where one can basically "log in" to a place they've arrived at. This promotes these places to create a facebook page and advertise on the space in real-time to users of mobile devices as soon as they log in. Google is seeing Facebook as a threat because it seems that people are using Facebook as the new Google, searching for local businesses and "what to dos." Facebook creates more of a personal and easier to access advertisement as well as making it more user friendly since thousands of people are on Facebook at all hours of the day already.

Article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791804575439740544880692.html

--Leah Stoltz