Weekly Internet Update: Google & Facebook

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Facebook

This week, we saw some significant developments related to Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) & Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), which could impact their value in the coming years. Here are some of them.

Facebook

Facebook had a pretty exciting week. It is reportedly working on a new Want button, which could power social e-commerce on the network. Facebook’s Want button enables users to point out stuff that they want and signal purchasing intent. Using data generated from the Want button, retailers could target customers directly on Facebook, and drive a significant amount of sales.

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Facebook also saw some respite from its legal woes today, as executives at Facebook and Yahoo signed a deal with a major partnership including a advertising collaboration and patent cross-licensing. No money has exchanged hands but the deal will lead to a deeper relationship between the two companies.

Facebook’s ad sales efforts may also be gaining traction, as it rekindled talks with General Motors, to bring it back as a paid advertiser after the two split ways just around its IPO. If GM does come back to Facebook, it may signal that Facebook’s social ad offerings are finally improving, which is crucial as social advertising accounts for a major portion of its value.

Check out our complete analysis of Facebook

Google

Google made quite a few significant moves this week, which reveal some details of its long-term strategy. It continues to focus on Google+, and launched a new feature in Hangouts – live captions – which is similar to captioning in YouTube, but works in real time. It continues to receive rave reviews for the Nexus 7 tablet, and may see its market share in the budget segment of the tablet market rise in the coming years.

On the other hand, it shut down some of its major services like iGoogle, Google Video, Google Mini and others. Google has shut down a number of services in the past year, as part of its bid to focus on certain key ones.

In other news, Google’s Galaxy Nexus phone has been banned in the US after Apple won a initial ruling for an injunction on sales of the device based on patent infringement allegations.

Check out our complete analysis of Google