Comment by strgcmc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by strgcmc | Hacker News Reader

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Because you can sell them something other than the one thing they are looking for.

Contrived example: I search for "buying new SUV" so clearly you should show me new car ads and car buying articles and reviews. But if I am a mid-30s married person, you might also try to sell me car seats for the babies I demographically am likely to have or want to have soon. OTOH, if am an older 60s retired widow, you may want to advertise warranty and car maintenance plans for my peace of mind about taking care of the car.

Actually it's a little more nuanced than that, because I could be mid-30s and married but choosing to be childfree, or I could be a 65 year old widow and former car mechanic who is more than capable of taking care of my own vehicle. So collecting the demographic data is about building a gradient of probabilities, things that are ranked in likelihood of value/relevance, and using that information to inform the demand side of advertisers deciding how much to bid for my eyeballs.

Sure if that was how Google worked - but Google would also have found you searching for "what to expect from pregnancy?" and "tax implications of a spouse dying", or "developments in car maintenance".

Facebook finds out what you think to share, Google finds out what you're doing and generally the path you took to get there.

Google News has always uncannily followed by current job's tertiary areas, for example.

Facebook also tracks you with the “like” button on 3rd party website. They know which page you have browsed and for how long

What do you think Google Analytics does?

It's more explicit now. Most sites add the Facebook Pixel as they want to track conversions on their site. Most brands have this on their site. Facebook can do all of the analysis that Google can with that, such as knowing how many people add something to their cart, checkout, etc.

The power is in combining that data, like one of the grandparent comments mentioned. They will know if you buy a SUV (since the dealer uploads the data as an offline conversion) and that you're browsing baby clothes on Walmart/Target. Now you're a "new or expecting parent".

Some of these interest categories are not that explicit but the lookalike audiences are. That's a whole other post :)

Not that I disagree with what you said, but maybe you can think about it this way (again, contrived oversimplification):

- Google are the experts/masters of knowing "what you want", expressed via your search intents

- Facebook are the experts/masters of knowing "who you are" (including demographics, as well as family/friends/connections, interests/hobbies/personality, etc.)

Google can guess at the same type of "who" information that Facebook owns (e.g. gender inference), and vice versa Facebook can guess at the type of info that Google owns (e.g. search/purchase intent), but both have distinct relative advantages over the other, which is why there is still competition in this space (the GP comment was questioning, why hasn't Google just "won", why is FB even in the picture, etc.).

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