This was really brought home when a fellow entrepreneur mentioned the other day that Google makes it near impossible for startups to enter a category in SEO.
I have to chime in, because this is just plausible enough to be dangerous without actually being true.
Incumbents have several built-in advantages, however, that doesn't mean startups can't compete with them. Practical examples are using your vastly superior access to the linkerati (if you don't know what this word means, go read SEOMoz, it is probably the most-important-least-obvious thing about SEO I could name), willingness to experiment rapidly, and lack of structural impediments to engaging at scale.
I don't understand how the author concludes from the article he or she links( http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_facebook_social_... ) that Facebook exceeded all of Google's properties in traffic in December. That article says that peak social networking traffic exceeded peak search traffic in that month. It then goes on to point out that even that is questionable, given that the traffic figures count Youtube as social networking.
Still the point is good that people have put less attention into optimizing websites for Facebook, so getting traction there may be an easier target than Google. Therefore that may provide better value for effort.
I couldn't agree more on Adwords vs Facebook ads based on my experience using both. The targeting on FB is fantastic and you can really play with it to get maximum CTR.
For Google:
Revenue - Optionally opt for Google checkout, which has been a mediocre product so far.
For Facebook:
Revenue - Optionally opt for Facebook payments. Early, but we’ve seen good results in their alpha and their team has been very responsive.
I have to chime in, because this is just plausible enough to be dangerous without actually being true.
Incumbents have several built-in advantages, however, that doesn't mean startups can't compete with them. Practical examples are using your vastly superior access to the linkerati (if you don't know what this word means, go read SEOMoz, it is probably the most-important-least-obvious thing about SEO I could name), willingness to experiment rapidly, and lack of structural impediments to engaging at scale.