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Google is the King of internet search, but there is a new game in town. Social media is the next wave of internet communication and Google has been unable to compete with Facebook or Twitter. Not only is Facebook the top social media website, it has also de-throned Google as the most visited website in the US for 2010. While Google is going after Apple's mobile market, Facebook is going after Google's core business.

Google is focused on finding another market in which to grow their business. All of these new strategies are based on free or open source software. One of these new markets is the smartphone market with Android, in which they are competing directly with Apple. Google has created many such projects and has canceled some of them like Google Wave. Google and their open source software developers have been generating software products at an astounding rate. Yet, it does not look like they have a clear strategy to all this software development. They are basically throwing mud on a wall and hoping some of it sticks. Can such a mud flinging battle be profitable?

Internet users search to find information and content on the internet. Google is essentially an ad company that uses the necessary function of searching to make money by distributing their ads. The more you view sites with their ads, the more money they make. Google is using this money to create new products they can use to display their ads. For example, Google does not make any money on Android, so all the costs of developing this operating system comes from internet ads. If internet users stop going to websites with Google products, they would stop making money. That won't be happening anytime soon, but as more people go to sites like Facebook, the less money Google rakes in.

Is Google using most of their money to maintain their core business? No, they are focused on Apple and the iOS. With every new feature or product Apple releases, Google tries copy it with a competing product. Google first started with Android for the smartphone market. It took them a year to finally develop an OS to compete with the iPhone. Next it was Google TV and now it is Android 3.0 going after the iPad. They have created an App Store, Digital Book Store, and are trying to create a Music Store. Apple historically makes money on selling hardware and that is Apple's strength. It will take a lot of Google's development effort to really compete with Apple. Meanwhile, Facebook is using all of its investment money going after Google's core business.

Facebook has a clear strategy to own the social media market. This new social media market is how internet users communicate or share with one another. More and more internet users are using their social networks to find information and content instead of just searching the internet. They have over 600 million users and are the largest photo sharing site. For many people, Facebook is becoming the internet. The more people stay in Facebook, the less they use the rest of the internet and the less money Google makes. They both have very similar business model and make money by selling ads. Google is the king of the old market and Facebook is the king of the new market. Google has tried to make a couple of social media products, but have failed. It does not look like social media is in Google's DNA.

Facebook and Apple do not compete against each other and are focused on their core businesses. Google, on the other hand, is trying to spread themselves too thin by competing in both markets. If Google does not start shifting its vision to maintain its core business by competing with Facebook, it may not have any money left to compete with Apple.

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