Charlene Li & Jeremiah Owyang of The Altimeter Group posted today about Google’s Social Media ambitions.  Here’s an excerpt of the key takeaway:

Google isn’t going after a frontal, brute force assault on Facebook and the other social networks — it simply can’t win at that game on a global basis. Instead Google is pursuing a softer approach, a zen-like attach much like water flowing around a rock.  It is using its strengths — ubiquity and open platforms — to put “social” into every corner of the Web.

This is the stealth threat — that today’s social networks won’t really be losing share to the “Google network”, but rather, that they will become slowly less relevant as EVERYTHING gets social thanks to advances by Google.

This inspired a lot of thinking on my part and I left a comment that I’ll pass along here, for your own brain fodder:

Is there a scenario in which Facebook and Google can play nice, or is a clash inevitable?

What role, if any, will Microsoft play in this scene? They seem to be resurgent in some areas and have the patience of Buddha in terms of marketshare gains.

What would Google’s reaction be, do you think, if (for example) some major brands objected to tools like Sidewiki that could “hijack” the conversations about their brands (in a place that is literally too close to home, i.e., appended to their homepages)? Would GOOG re-trench and re-think rather than stand tall against a raft of complaints?

Would the smart marketer be better advised to bet their budgets on Google or Facebook? For example, bloggers are already faced with adding FB Connect *or* GOOG Connect (or Twitter for that matter), to log-in users. That’s a long-term bet, really, as you wouldn’t want to change horses after gaining a good ### of readers…

And what about Twitter? Using Tweetie on the iPhone gives one a good sense for how surfing the Web “within” a Twitter interface might work, and it works rather well. Makes one wonder about the upstart’s own long-term plans/vision?

OK, now, dear readers.  Let’s say you are in charge of marketing at a FORTUNE 1000 company.  You have decided to make a long-term bet on ONE of these highly-hyped Social Networks.  Do you spend it on GOOGLE or FACEBOOK or TWITTER?  Which one do you suspect will have the greatest impact your success as a marketer?

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