It's not just about syndicating ads. If anything syndicating ads is just another way to expand reach. Facebook has plenty of reach on it's own site, with 450 million users and counting.
Facebook might have nice structured data about demographics and other user information but dollar for dollar investing in Google Adwords is exponentially more effective then Facebook. The reason being advertising on Facebook is more akin to advertising on TV, people using the service aren't searching for anything and ads feel exactly like ads. Adwords works because they actually help people find what they're looking for.
Facebook may have achieved several hundred million dollars in advertising revenue (and search deals with Microsoft) the last few years, but if they are going to convince people to invest a billion dollars, or at Google's level several tens of billions of dollars, in advertising dollars, they need to figure out a way to make advertising on Facebook at least as effective as Google.
I for one, simply don't see that happening - ever. I see Facebook's destiny as a very low margin potentially public social network company, but the next Google? That's a long long loooooong shot.
Facebook might have nice structured data about demographics and other user information but dollar for dollar investing in Google Adwords is exponentially more effective then Facebook. The reason being advertising on Facebook is more akin to advertising on TV, people using the service aren't searching for anything and ads feel exactly like ads. Adwords works because they actually help people find what they're looking for.
Facebook may have achieved several hundred million dollars in advertising revenue (and search deals with Microsoft) the last few years, but if they are going to convince people to invest a billion dollars, or at Google's level several tens of billions of dollars, in advertising dollars, they need to figure out a way to make advertising on Facebook at least as effective as Google.
I for one, simply don't see that happening - ever. I see Facebook's destiny as a very low margin potentially public social network company, but the next Google? That's a long long loooooong shot.