Yahoo knows more about you than Facebook

Did you know that both Yahoo and Facebook are really just Giant Paid Advertising Websites? Doesn't matter that you do different things on each site. They both make their money selling advertising. Funny little thing though. Ads placed on websites besides Facebook are twice as effective as those placed on Facebook.  Why is this?

We all think that Facebook knows so much about us based on our sharing and liking and posting. But why don't you sit back and think of what percent of your daily activity is shared on Facebook. I would guarantee less than 0.01% . Think of all the actions today you will do. People you will talk with, things you will eat, websites you will visit, things you will look at and do.. How much will go on Facebook? Maybe 2 or 3 out of 1000 actions. There you go. 

Yahoo has been around longer. I bet you all have Yahoo accounts and at one time used or still use their email. You read news and sports on Yahoo but not on Facebook. You might of used their once powerful yellow pages or other services like checking out TV and Movie listings. If you go to the OMG! section and see the People magazine style articles you will find hundreds and thousands of comments on each article. More search happens on Yahoo than does on Facebook.

So Yahoo knows more about what you like, what you do, where you live and your life in general than Facebook. Thus Yahoo knows you. And that is why Facebook now tracks you off site because they realized...they really know nothing about you but if they admit that....there goes their $100billion IPO.

And if Yahoo knows more about you than Facebook, Google knows even more about you because of Google Maps, Shopping, GPS, News, Android, Email, Search, Goggles, Documents, G+, they even know what countries you check out the most on Google Earth.

There is a silver lining. Facebook has been improving their Click Through Rate. But from such a low base rate and the fact they supposedly know so much about you this shows poor execution or bad business model. In fact Forbes has a concern a large chunk of ad clicks come from social gaming which could be a red flag.

So when you read of brands or agencies increasing ad spending on Facebook the question I ask is this because 'everyone is doing it' or will we see actual results. Because personally brands should spend where they get the best results. And so far Facebook is lagging.