Will Facebook's upcoming announcement trump Google's?

Is Facebook looking to steal Microsoft’s thunder? Reports out this week suggest that Facebook will be announcing a new advertising system just one day after Google announces how it will be opening up to developers.

by Helen Leggatt

Reports from September suggest that, on November 5 this year, Google will make an announcement regarding the “opening-out” of its platform. By announcing a new set of APIs, Google will enable developers to leverage Google’s social graph data , initially across services such as iGoogle and Orkut.

“Google’s goal - to fight Facebook by being even more open than the Facebook Platform. If Facebook is 98% open , Google wants to be 100%,” writes Michael Arrington at TechCrunch.

This week, reports have been circulating that Facebook will also make a major announcement, on November 6, the day after Google. An article on AdAge.com suggests that Facebook could be looking to their users’ voluntarily-provided information to target them even when they’re not on the site.

All eyes and ears will be trained on the two companies at the AdTech event in New York which is running at the time the announcements are due.