David Kirkpatrick to Mark Zuckerberg: How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
Will Fortune’s David Kirkpatrick “accuse” Wall Street Journal’s Kara Swisher of “glib” Yahoo analysis now, as he lobbed at her talk of a “delusional” Facebook world?
Why did I miss the Kirkpatrick love letter to Mark Zuckerberg yesterday hailing Facebook as the “ideal testbed for the future of advertising”? I was in the heart of Advertising Week in Manhattan, with actual advertising agencies discussing the future of advertising.
Kirkpatrick’s ode to the 23 year old founder of a company–the origins of which are being disputed in court–not only puts the world’s advertising in the youngster’s hands, but the future of the entire Internet as well.
HEY, isn’t that Google’s job?
In paying homage to Mark Zuckerberg–portrayed by Fortune as the the closest thing to God, or at least Bill Gates–Kirkpatrick actually harkens to the Google advertising as consumer service playbook for world domination.
Kirkpatrick: The Internet is rapidly moving toward a world in which advertisers are able to target their messages to those most likely to be responsive. While this is often painted as an invasion of privacy, in fact it is a service…the ads we see will quite often be ads that convey the information we want. If software algorithms can help marketers identify what sorts of goods and services we are most likley to buy, it is a benefit, not an intrusion.
Very Googley sounding indeed, as Google’s own, orignal ads are as good as content words illustrate:
ADVERTISING THAT PEOPLE WANT TO SEE: Ads only reach the people who actually want to see them. Relevant advertising can be as useful as search results or other forms of content. Advetising can enhance the experience for vistors to a publishers’ Website.
Google is SO confident in ITS original ads are a benefit, not an intruision sales pitch, that CEO Eric Schmidt believes his Google as world advertising leader “fantasy” is realizable:
The long-term fantasy is we walk up to you and you give us, say, $10 million and we’ll completely allocate it for you across different media and ad types.
Last December, Tacoda Chairman Dave Morgan, headlined: “Agencies: Google has put a target on your back.”
The Google ad agency extinction plan is not coming to fruition, however, as I reported yesterday straight from AdWeek, following a discussion between agency execs which was sponsored by AOL, new Tacoda owner and ongoing Google search partner. READ: Madison Ave to Google: Stop Wasting Our Time
The Facebook as universal ad-supported platform fantasy was also dealt a cold shower: “How do you monetize it?” Kathleen Kayse, EVP, Partnerships, AOL Media Network, queried.
Facebook is also feeling the heat, from Andrew Cuomo, New York State Attorney General.
While Kirkpatrick credits Facebook for “solving the critical problem of Internet identity,” Cuomo has issued a subpoena to Facebook due to its dangerous, no need for identification “open” policy:
Posing as underage users, investigators found they were repeatedly solicited by adult sexual predators on Facebook and could easily access a wide range of pornographic images and videos.
“My office is concerned that Facebook’s promise of a safe website is not consistent with its performance in policing its site and responding to complaints,” Cuomo said. “Parents have a right to know what their children will encounter on a website that is aggressively marketed as safe.”
In his letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Cuomo told him of New York State’s concerns that:
Facebook’s public statements and advertisIng may be materially misleading and may constitute violations of New York General Business Law and Executive Law.
Kirkpatrick’s faith in Zukcerberg is nevertheless apparently unwaverying. How does Fortune love thee? Let me count the ways:
Not only does he have natural gifts for programming, leadership, and marketing - traits that served Gates well in Microsoft’s first couple decades. He also, like his industry predecessor, seems mostly driven by a conviction that what he is doing will make the world a better place.
The money will come to him, as it did to Gates, not because he seeks it but as a byproduct of finding effective ways to help society move forward using software.
His focus is extraordinary. What’s more, he is a nicer person than is Gates.
It would behoove any company to keep him close. His thinking about the importance and role of what he calls the “social graph” - the network of relationships that underlies a social network - is subtle and unselfish.
BUT WHAT IS THE MOST VALUABLE ZUCKERBERG TRAIT OF ALL? THE ABILITY TO MAKE GROWN MEN SWOON!
Kirkpatrick bottom line: “It may be worth quite a few hundred million for any company to get into bed with Mark Zuckerberg.”
ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg: WHO Are You Calling Delusional? and With Facebook Platform as a Developer Friend, Who Needs Enemies?