Clash of the Titans: Google vs. Facebook

On the information super highway, data is currency as ad sales on the Web surpasses every other medium. Privacy? What is it? We all value our own personal privacy and we wouldn’t think of any stranger just walking into our homes, propping themselves up on the sofa, turning on the TV and firing up the computer to check out what we have on our DVRs and which Web sites we go to.

There’s a subtle form of peeping going on and it’s something that we’ve all helped to facilitate. We knowingly, voluntarily (and often unwittingly) give away all kinds of personal information about us (sites visited, personal info, et al.) to Web giants Google and Facebook.

These two internet powerhouses are duking it out and at stake is your personal privacy. Facebook and Google have been at eachother’s gigantic throats for a while now and now Facebook is about to go public with a staggering $5 billion IPO. Facebook, of course, is the keeper of everyone’s life stories, secrets and interactions with others. Just who will win this battle between Google and Facebook? It all comes down to this: what do they need our information for and how are they using it? The trail will always lead to the same place: money.

If you Google the word “privacy” you will find many reassurances from the titans of the industry claiming that they’re champions of protecting the personal data that you readily share with them. Is there any privacy online anymore? We all voluntarily give a lot of information about ourselves, the people we share our lives with and the things we buy, consume and enjoy.

The omniscient collective power of Google and Facebook is ubiquitously intoxicating. Is privacy online a thing of the past? Has it gone the way of the cassette tape, the CD and the Atari? Or has personal privacy online always been nonexistent, whether or not we care? We’ll just have to wait and see who “Likes” to have all their personal secrets told to these companies whose business purpose is to make money and to preserve and perpetuate their awesome power. Sure, Google makes our lives more convenient and Facebook does bring the joy of keeping in touch with people but as we all know, nothing in this linear world is ever truly free. Well, I take that back, probably the most important thing that each of us has (to varying extents) and will always be free is this: intuition. Our instincts, however, are far from linear or tangible. Sometimes we just know things without knowing how or why we know them; perhaps it’s because we feel things first and we are and will always be FEELING people.

Google is the irresistible force and Facebook the immoveable object. Just who will budge? This is one battle that I definitely “Like” to see happen. We all love to friend those who we know and are fond of or at least can tolerate but the whole idea of “unfriending” someone is kind of middle school-ish; some do it to punish others or to simply distance themselves from people they used to work or go to school with who turned out to be more foe than friend or maybe someone they’d simply rather just forget than remember. LOL. What did Scarface say about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer? Or was that the Godfather? I knew it was a Pacino flick. Hmmm…The last one to buy a share of Facebook is a rotten egg so go on, run out and get your piece of social media greatness. Facebook is a digital phone book and we will always live in a world full of two kinds of people: voyeurs and exhibitionists. Which one are you? 😉