A visitor to this site recently shared a new infographic with me. It’s title? “The Tech Cold War: Facebook Vs. Google.” (The infographic appears at the end of this post.)

The details explore the growth and trajectory of both of the tech giants, asking the questions:

Will one side emerge as the dominate power, or will they be locked in a stalemate for years to come? And what does this mean for the consumer?

However, those questions presuppose that there isn’t room for them both, and that they are seeking the same thing, vying for the consumer’s attention.

This is when things start to become confusing. Google and Facebook have tried to occupy the same space, with little success!

Google’s earlier failed social networks, Google Wave and Google Buzz, laid the groundwork for its quasi-success with Google+. But even there, it’s only in the way it distinguishes itself from Facebook (Google Hangouts and Google Authorship) that it’s successful. As a social network, it’s still relatively sparsely populated, even though social activity there contributes more to your SEO (search engine optimization) than elsewhere.

Let’s face it. Facebook is a social network. Whether you like it or not, it’s effective as a social network. With more than 700 million people who sign on to it every day, there’s a lot going on there.

The problem is, Facebook doesn’t play fair. It’s becoming more difficult for pages to appear in newsfeeds without having to pay for the privilege. As a result, engagement is low. (People can’t engage with what they don’t know is there.)

For the first time in years, I’m steering new clients away from Facebook as their first social platform, even though previously, it was where you went to build a community and grow a following.

Facebook’s policies have made that a thing of the past…

It’s still important to have a footprint there because a lot of people do use it to discover new things, but restrictions on search and other issues have made it much less important than it once was.

Now, for the average user, it’s about the social network, and maybe a little bit about the advertising. But not a whole bunch.

Google, on the other hand, holds true to the idea that great content is what matters. Rather than penalizing content developers, it showcases their work, offering opportunities to reward great content and developing influence with high search rankings.

So for an author, speaker or other business person looking to compete, Google is a friendlier business partner than Facebook. Although its social network isn’t anything stellar, all of the content you create there has value for your standing in search results.

I use Google and Facebook every day.

I don’t see that changing any time soon.

However, the way I use these two tech giants is completely different, and both are essential to my happiness.

They may choose to continue being rivals, but for me, Facebook will be where I connect with family and friends on a regular basis, and Google will be where I drive a stake in the ground and establish my brand and generate visibility.

With that said, you might be interested in seeing the actual infographic yourself. What are your thoughts on it?

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