Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) may soon have a new competitor if the recent plans by Google of letting its customers download all the mobile applications that they want directly from their search results materialises.
Google is currently testing a plan under which it seeks to change the manner in which its users access applications for their mobile devices.
As things stand now, Google users have to visit the Google Playstore in order to get the applications that they want. However, the company is testing an application that will make it possible for users to directly download the applications that they want straight from the results that they get on their Google search window.
This means that users do not have to waste time visiting the Google Playstore in order to get apps. And to make things sweeter, Google is planning to include a feature that lets users test the apps that they see in their search results for about 60 seconds. This will give them a chance to preview the apps and decide whether they would want to download them or not. If they want to, they will simply click on the link.
This can be a troublesome development for Facebook in several ways. To begin with, Facebook relies on mobile apps to make its money. Although the company has remained quite secretive about it, it is widely believed that it makes a tidy sum from letting developers of applications advertise to Facebook users about their applications.
What usually happens is that developers pay Facebook in order to be allowed to advertise their wares. Facebook then generates the adverts into the newsfeeds of its users. Of course, there is a complex process that takes place behind the scenes.
It is because of the use of complicated algorithms that are based on the information about the preferences of Facebook users that the company is able to channel specific adverts to specific types of users.
With Google about to launch its own service, Facebook is likely to be worried. The problem is that the new Google service will allow developers to easily monitor how people are searching for their applications.
On the flipside, Facebook says that it lets developers use its massive information about its own users. It believes that this will give it a competitive advantage over any other application that may be developed to make the process of downloading mobile applications easier.
