Here's How We Know Facebook Is Succeeding

This week, in an interview with Nicholas Carlson of Business Insider, Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) Bradley Horowitz ripped Facebook (Nasdaq: FB  ) as a "social network of the past." At issue is Sponsored Stories -- drive-by ads that are thinly disguised as posts.

"When you and I are having a conversation, the least opportune thing you can do is have some guy with a sandwich board run between us and try to sell me a sandwich," Horowitz said. "I'm trying to connect with someone and communicate in that sacred space. It doesn't matter if I like the sandwich. ... That is the wrong moment to dangle a sandwich in front of me."

Since Horowitz is front man for the Google+ social network, investors should take his comments as nothing more than fearful admiration of a rival. Yet that, too, is telling. Horowitz and his colleagues have good reason to fear Facebook, as Fool contributor Tim Beyers explains in the following video.

Thanks to a busted IPO, Facebook is only now regaining its footing. New initiatives such as Gifts and a more social mobile app are bringing money through the door in increasing amounts. Can these changes lead the stock into multibagger territory? We answer this question and more in our newest premium research report. Find out whether Facebook deserves a place in your portfolio. Click here to access your copy of the report now.