Facebook And Google Aren’t Talking Much

Just because Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he would love to work with Google, don’t expect the two to be cozying up anytime soon. When Facebook unveiled Graph Search earlier this month, ...
Facebook And Google Aren’t Talking Much
Written by Chris Crum
  • Just because Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he would love to work with Google, don’t expect the two to be cozying up anytime soon.

    When Facebook unveiled Graph Search earlier this month, Zuck was quoted as saying he would “love” to work with the search giant, even as the social network has a partnership in place with Bing. That’s probably not something Bing really wanted to hear him say, but who can blame him for the sentiments. Corporate politics aside, it makes too much sense for the company with all the social data, entering the search realm, to covet the power of the search engine that most people actually use. Likewise, it would make a great deal of sense for Google to covet the data from the social network everyone uses. Google+ growth has been impressive, but nobody would dare joke about it being able to offer the social and personal insight into users’ lives that Facebook can.

    The subject of the two companies working together inevitably came up in the Q&A session of Facebook’s earnings conference call on Wednesday. Long story short, the two companies aren’t really talking. Zuckerberg is quoted as saying, “Our relationship isn’t one where the companies really talk.”

    Business Insider recaps:

    However, he pointed out, because Google has a relatively open approach to its platforms, like its Android mobile operating system, Facebook is able to do more with its Android mobile app than it can on its iPhone app—even though its relationship with Apple is warmer. (He gave the example of being able to integrate text messages into the Facebook Messenger app on Android, which Facebook can’t do on Apple’s iOS mobile operating system.)

    The two companies have been competitors for a while now (and we’ve seen how Facebook is treating competitors these days), but that doesn’t mean a partnership couldn’t benefit both companies. It would certainly benefit users, which both seem rather keen on doing. Still, it’s not looking like we’re going to be seeing Zuckerberg and Larry Page going for a long walk on the beach anytime soon.

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