For a long time, I have noticed that my Google searches unintentionally lead to a Facebook commercial. I realized this while looking to rent a house in 2022.
I bombarded Google with housing-related search terms, and my Facebook timeline became cluttered with various types of rental properties and other such information. I did not even bother checking the connection until I realized the pattern was quite repetitive.
I decided to do some experimentation.
After that, I realized that your Google search results do not just appear with random answers on Facebook unless you are looking to buy something or purchase a service.
I was looking to buy a refrigerator recently, so I looked up the price online, which is how most people find out how much a product costs. Konga and Jumia are the leading online sellers in Nigeria, and when you search for an item's price, they are the first results you will see.
Recently, Google has placed some other online vendors below Konga and Jumia, which often dwarfs their visibility. However, these other outfits and vendors have already placed ads on Facebook, so even if you scroll down to see them on Google, when you enter your Facebook page, these businesses will be the first to appear as you scroll down.
Look at these images and you will see the proofs. I took these photos to document my experiments and findings.
Facebook drinks the Data milked by Google
Facebook is the Bermuda Triangle of data, despite the fact that it was not originally designed to be a search engine. It was originally intended to be a social hub, but they have since expanded beyond that.
Their primary focus is on data: what you ate for breakfast, where you ordered it, and whether you are likely to return to that restaurant. What clothes are you wearing, how much you paid, and how frequently you spend money on whatever.
However, they do not directly ask people these questions; instead, they collect data from people, particularly those who willingly give it to them, and use Google's hub of endless information to make money from the millions of data and information flying around.
Now, people pay Facebook to get their business out there. Initially, the data available in Facebook's database is insufficient to promote these businesses to the appropriate target audience, so Facebook collaborates with Google in a massive data sale to bring you that extra commercial inquiry to the doors of your Facebook timeline.
No privacy policy
On the surface, it may appear to be a significant benefit or service, but the truth is that Google has no privacy or information protection policies; if your search item is for commercial purposes, they will immediately sell it to the highest bidder, with Facebook being the largest buyer and nextdoor neighbor. This occurs in a flash because this is an automated algorithm.
Commercial inquiry equals money
Now if your search term is not for commercial purposes, you'll see that they don't appear on your Facebook timeline, and that's because dollar worse that piece of data is useless.
For example, if you are looking for answers to questions like "what causes diabetes?" or "why are my children so stubborn?" You don't get anyone who is selling anything related to this.
The data may be useless to Facebook, but not to Google. Google will immediately connect you to the answers based on their Google web rankings, which is where the Google ad program makes money.
Conclusion
There are currently no web2 or web3 applications that connect buyers and sellers while rewarding data owners.
This is because the presence of data and information creates an opportunity for money to be made, and if there was a web giant that rewarded the primary owner of data, then some people would most likely make an extra income or a living selling data online.
Unfortunately, there isn't, and this is where web2 continues to rule the data industry. Maybe someday we will see this type of data commerce on a web3 platform, maybe not.
Interested in some more of my posts
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