$15 Billion - the price of credibility?
Fifteen billion dollars - that’s 15 and 9 zeros - is the market value of Facebook, according to a press release announcing the $240 million dollar business transaction establishing a “strategic alliance” between Facebook and Microsoft. The deal makes Microsoft the exclusive third-party advertising platform partner for Facebook, giving them access to a user base which purportedly expands by 200,000 registered users every day. Microsoft will begin to sell advertising for Facebook internationally in addition to the United States.
Implications for Medical Libraries
To say this purchase increases the legitimacy of Social Networking websites is a no-brainer. For academia, this could spell a boon to librarians who already use Facebook to outreach to patrons. Perhaps you’ve already heard of Springshare’s LibGuides, a sort of resource guide/pathfinder/blog/wiki/widget that’s fully integrated with Facebook. (If you haven’t, check out this review from medical librarian blog omg tuna is kewl.) Microsoft’s backing will hopefully bring improved functionality of Facebook applications like LibShare (and maybe even convince my library to subscribe to the service.)
Microsoft already provides the Office suite to many academic institutions. How long before we see a move towards integration of social networking software into Word, Excel, PowerPoint? How about a link to a user’s Facebook profile from your Outlook contacts? Google already provides similar collaborative tools with their Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Microsoft, Google’s long-time competitor, can’t be far behind.
So does a $15 billion valuation make social networking credible? What do you see in this integrated future? As always, we’re interested to hear your thoughts.