Comments on: Google’s second click versus Facebook’s second click

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:36:18 +0000

Yep, Yahoo! Search is doing almost exactly what Andrew described: http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000527.html

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:50:05 +0000

Yahoo has already opened their SE no?

By: john doe

john doe — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:29:27 +0000

facebook invades privacy sooo much as does google. where is an application that allows one to do what one wishes, without profiling or data mining?

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:30:08 +0000

Sounds a lot like Yahoo’s search monkey.

By: joy

joy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:52:55 +0000

i wonder how much of the sentiment arises from 'platforms' being all the rage these days. i found this article http://venturebeat.com/2008/03/03/is-facebooks-platform-a-strategic-mistake/ to capture well the cons of this philosophy. Part of the Google value is simplicity and consistency. You know you can use it for weather, tickers, FedEx tracking numbers! It is the consistency of functionality that keeps taking people back to Google. Not unlike what keeps McDonalds ticking. A huge part of Google's value proposition is that it simply works! It doesn't ask u to install some custom app that does some special thing well. And if by providing such a platform - google abdicated itself from building useful shortcuts - that would be a very bad move for them. For example - let's say Google could make a choice on building a special book title search result - or leaving it to some application developer. I would argue that it's a negative for Google to leave it to an application developer. A large number of people who could benefit would never install the application. and Google would never become THE place to do a book search.

Even in comparison to Facebook - the most popular applications there are all games. Utilitarian apps are by and large not that popular. And no one considers Facebook THE place to go and write a travel review (numerous travel applications notwithstanding). So extending the suitableness of (a primarily) gaming platform to a utilitarian service is questionable imho.

By: Chun Xia

Chun Xia — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:06:49 +0000

I like your insightful analysis and the concept of "2nd click". However, I think Google part of 2nd click is too idealism. Since Internet has not yet evolved into super intelligent semantic web (web4.0? or is that possible?), we need Google as a manual navigator in case we (always!) get lost. The jump between navigation to destination won't be simply one click away. Imagen a highway road sign "Exit 196 Food Gas" teleports into a busy drive-thru alley of all sorts of junk food and over-priced gas stations.

Indeed, 2007 was the year of "platform" game. Platform implies "God" in this industry. The question is, does "God" really exist?

By: Phillip Bogle

Phillip Bogle — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:12:46 +0000

Have you looked at Google's subscribed links feature? These provide something like what you are suggesting, although the usability and promotion of this feature by Google leave something to be desired.

"Subscribed Links let you create custom search results that users can add to their Google search pages. You can display links to your services for your customers, provide news and status information updated in near-real-time, answer questions, calculate useful quantities, and more. "

(from http://www.google.com/coop/subscribedlinks/?hl=en )

This feels like someone's 20% project that hasn't quite seen the attention it deserves.

By: Vivek Puri

Vivek Puri — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:18:52 +0000

Even though lot of us are expecting the same from google, I think that would be too futuristic for typical Google(non-facebook) users. Also, search is the only cash cow for google right now, which makes it a very risk bet. Maybe they would offer an alternate search engine or API on top of searchmash.com……