[waterlesscloud]

You make a good point that perhaps facebook can't monetize word of mouth on the valuable keywords without also destroying the word of mouth. It's easy to see how that could happen. People would stop asking if it just resulted in their friends getting quoted in ads.

But does it have to be monetized to hurt Google? What if Facebook just promoted the idea that you should ask your friends for advice on these things? Maybe something like yelp, but limited to reviews and comments from your circle. Or even just highlighting the conversations when they naturally occur.

Probably wouldn't get to a level that it was a threat to Google, but it might shave some edges off here and there, at little to no cost to facebook.

[dasil003]

But that would be even less reason to change strategy. Look, there are an infinite number of things that could kill Google in the future. The only real certainty of life is death. But they can't be speculatively jumping on every potential future threat just because Goldman Sachs said you should buy; it makes them look foolish. Successful companies should stay true to themselves and give their own DNA a chance to win with full commitment, if they lose they lose but at least they won't have suffered a fear-based implosion.