Is a Facebook vs. LinkedIn Showdown Near?
If Facebook “is graying,” will it also turn pro?
I issued a “Social Fireworks Alert” last weekend, on the eve of LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman’s keynote at the Facebook inspired conference put on by Dave McClure, aka “loud mouth McClure” as dubbed by LinkedIn’s head of communications, noting that LinkedIn had been conspicuoulsy wary of engaging in a LinkedIn trumps Facebook for business debate publicly, despite very public LinkedIn “death wishes” in a Facebook frenzied blogosphere.
In August, I headlined: Facebook Fans Trash Talk LinkedIn: Will Reid Hoffman Fight Back?
Hoffman and LinkedIn team indeed appear to be “fighting back,” in their own genteel way.
Last month, I spoke with Hoffman at length about the LinkedIn vs. Facebook controversy. READ MY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Reid Hoffman On How LinkedIn Beats Facebook for Business
Hoffman, also an investor in Facebook, told me it is “obvious” the two sites are different and that the Mark Zuckerberg production is too “lightweight” for the professional needs of executives:
LinkedIn is for professional problem solving. Facebook is horizontal, LinkedIn is vertical.
Neverthesless, I underscored Zuckerberg’s far ranging ambition and indicated Facebook most likely is targeting the business vertical.
In his keynote last week, Hoffman reiterated the differing “use cases” he sees between Facebook and LinkedIn, and his belief that early adopter geek bloggers dont’ “get” LinkedIn.
While Hoffman is focused on pointing out the structrual differences between LinkedIn and Facebook–Facebook infrastructure facilitates media sharing among friends, LinkedIn platform supports business connections among professionals–LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye is taking pleasure in highligting the philosophical differences between the Hoffman founded LinkedIn and the Zuckerberg founded Faceboook:
On many other Web sites, there is a lot of noise and a lot of interference.We have no interest in doing it like Facebook with an open API letting people do whatever they want. We’re not going to have people sending electronic hamburgers to each other.
Nye asserts: “When people tell the story that there will be one graph they are crazy.”
Interesting state of LinkedIn vs. Facebook affairs then! MARK ZUCKERBERG’S VISION OF A UNIVERSAL FACEBOOK GRAPH IS A CRAZY ONE, in the eyes of the LinkedIn CEO who reports to the LinkedIn chairman who is a Facebook investor.
Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t want to be the next Google, he wants to be even bigger than Google. Facebook will undoubtedly not be deterred in its mission to be the one-stop destination for all human interaction online by the presence of LinkedIn’s founder on its shareholder roster.
The blogosphere is gunning for a Facebook vs. LiinkedIn fight to the finish. LinkedIn has taken the Facebook gloves off, the business ball it is now in Facebook’s court.
IS A FACEBOOK VS. LINKEDIN SHOWDOWN NEAR?
PLUS EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE: CED Tech 2007: 30 Cool Startups, But NO Facebook Apps
ALSO: Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Who has the Women? and The Real Reason Google Has the Midas Touch