[soup10]

So google failed to catch the social bus, who gives a fuck. Google is an engineering company at it's core, and as long as they continue to do ridiculously cool and useful R&D with their search advertising revenues in the hopes of developing new killer products. They are a far more impressive and valuable company than their derpy cousins at facebook who mostly just capitalize on people's vanity and boredom.

[johnsea]

Well and google capitalizes on the fact that most normal people are too lazy to install adblockers and bored enough to watch youtube videos.

I admire their engineering capabilities but for me they are no longer cool and the 'one google' doctrine is something I actively try to resist (multiple accounts, log out, avoid services, use alternatives).

[m3mnoch]

i'm happy to explain it to you in four easy steps.

first, look at this chart: http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/services/ranking-factors-201...

second, notice how all of the highest ranking seo factors are social.

third, google makes more money on search ads because it monetizes intent. you know what else monetizes well? recommendations.

fourth, owning both the recommendation data AND the ad data enables even better (aka more expensive) ad targeting.