Once in a while its interesting to take a look at general internet trends. Its not banking specific in the short term, but it will be.
While FaceBook is all the rage at the moment, I am still on the fence, and here is why. FaceBook is a walled garden determined to produce a private environment with sufficient numbers of participants that will drive advertising revenue.
Google is the antithesis, and regards the entire internet as its garden. This sets up the ultimate battle between control and openness.
- Control: FaceBook offers an engaging environment where people can interact with each other and with their applications, but search engines/ advertising platforms are shut out, except for the ones that pay, and in FB’s case thats Microsoft
- Openness: Google’s strategy is to make the entire internet (except the FaceBook walled garden) so engaging that users will deem open internet more valuable than the quasi private FaceBook.
FaceBook sees themselves as an application platform, while Google sees the internet as an application platform. Its a classic battle. This from ZDNet on Google and their approach.
» Google’s new mantra: Making the Web a better platform for all | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
According to Gundotra, Google is happy to create a more level playing field by giving away core code (not the revenue generating search or ad technology) to application developers. “If the motive is to drive usage on the Internet, it’s ok. We hope users will love to use our products and that they are useful to developers, such as gadgets.”
On the question of a Google browser, Gundotra answered cryptically, “We have a lot of people to make the Web better.” Google might open source technology to browser makers such as Mozilla, Microsoft and Apple, but it’s not clear if they will embrace them. It’s not a big stretch to think of Google reinventing the browser or doing something with the Firefox code if Mozilla isn’t innovating fast enough to satisfy Larry and Sergey dreams for the Web as a platform.
Google is also considering ways to provide infrastructure services to developers. Currently, gadget developers can serve their code of Google’s servers, but the company has been coy about broader usage.
“Google is a world class leader in scale infrastructure, and we hope to apply it to the Web, but we have no announcement at this time,” Gundotra said. It would make sense for Google to provide services to smaller developers similar to what Amazon does with its S3 and Elastic Compute Cloud as a way to bring more innovation quickly to the Web.
This from FaceBook, and their approach which is strategically valid too, being based on user control, and raw traffic from [FaceBook] trusted friends. I qualify friends because I have to say FaceBook have taken liberties with the english meaning of that word, but nonetheless, there is a raw connection drawn between those that are ‘friended’ which transcends earthbound day to day life.
» Facebook: Committed to the sanctity of the social graph | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
“We are trying to build the most accurate representation, a digital mapping of how people interact in real world,” Vora explained. She brought the canonical Facebook photo application as the example of how the social graph can work. Facebook Photos isn’t feature rich like other services, but it has more traffic because of the social tagging tied into the social graph.
Photos are propagated as more users tag people and share with their Facebook friends. It’s an indicator of social interaction and the social graph, Vora said.
It remains to be seen where this battle will go, but a battle it will be. We also have the sheer financial and technological, albeit unfocussed, power of Microsoft and Yahoo to consider. They are not yet part of the battle because they have no clear strategy in the future of the internet space, but they will be players because of their commitment and size.
Anyhow, people are wrestling with the volume of information and advertising bombarding them today. They will seek protection in different ways, by basking in the volume or hiding from it. One question is whether that protection will come from environmental control (Facebook) or personal control (Google). With that statement I have made my preference clear, but the future is never linear, and as adjustments are made, I see two winning approaches evolving.
On the technology front new tools are in development that support web applications in ways that we can only dream of today. Prism offers the world of applications within your browser, unencumbered by back buttons, and URL bars. A scaled down browser with a clear line of sight to the application people want … email, RSS, Calendar, FaceBook even – see here for current applications for Prism. Prism is relevant because as a web application presentation it actually supports either FaceBook of Google. By the same token, those two will never achieve real success unless a Prism or like, vehicle exists. Its not co-incidence, that Google might be considering taking on development of the Firefox/Mozilla browser.
Having meanadered all over the place here, we can zero right back to banking. It doesn’t take much of a leap to consider a connection to your Bank through a Prism like vehicle. The power of a desktop application, combined with the advantages of a thin client browser. This is the promise of web based applications, and the only outstanding question… will that be with Google or FaceBook sir?
Bankwatch 