First off, I can’t agree that Google represents freedom. While it’s true that when people say “Google” the first thing that comes to mind is “search engine,” but in reality the core of Google is anything but. They are about advertising, and getting as many websites as possible to use it. It’s hard to find a website these days that doesn’t have Google on it (doubleclick.org or google-analytics.com)

Google made a reported 10 billion off advertising in 2006. far more than any of it’s other aspects. I can only imagine that going up, and I don’t think Facebook threatens that market much despite it’s growth as a networking superpower. There is certainly competition there, but I think both are so entrenched in their respective niche markets that they don’t pose much of a threat to each other.

Also, as far as the conflict that does exist between them, I think a third party needs to be mentioned, and that’s Microsoft. They’ve just announced changes that will be implemented in Windows 7, such as a web-based word processing and spreadsheet applet, that are no doubt meant to compete with Google’s similar apps. If Google and Facebook plan to go head-to-head in the future, I think it’s a safe bet that Microsoft will want to get in on the action.