In yet another example of Facebook moving in on Google's territory, the social media behemoth now facilitates location-based advertising through mobile devices (at this time limited to the iPhone).
To my mind, this is a huge threat to Google. As the article mentions, Facebook has tremendous scale. But more importantly, their strategy drives at the heart of how we tend to make purchase decisions. We are by nature social creatures. Our circles of friends and family are probably the biggest influencers of what we buy. Furthermore, many items have their intrinsic value enhanced by network effects - videogames are more fun when you can play them against your friends, books are more enjoyable when you can discuss them with others. And, while many of us have learned to tune out the noise of online advertising, we still pay attention to what's happening with the people we know and like.
Interestingly, Google a few months ago started working with Verizon to marginalize net neutrality on mobiles. Is it possible Google is holding mobile net neutrality (and whatever influence they have with the FCC) as a trump card against Facebook? Could Google get away with that?
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