Facebook Testing Feature That Would Make it More Valuable for Search

AllFacebook has discovered that Facebook is now testing showing all liked news articles in its search results. This would obviously be a significant move as the company competes with Google. Nick O’Neill writes:

Additionally, the results for searches now shows the results from all around the web based on two things: the number of likes and the number of friends who liked that object, most likely leveraging some of the technology shown in their recently approved patent. We first received reports of these search results showing up earlier yesterday.

The search results have now become dramatically more relevant with the inclusion of recent news articles, something that previously wasn’t accessible via Facebook’s open graph search results. Currently, the search results only appear within the drop down from Facebook’s search box, however I’d assume that this will eventually shift to Facebook’s search area, which has yet to undergo a significant overhaul.

Facebook has a lot going on as usual. It was also discovered that the company is testing a subscription feature. This could end up being another key element. The feature would provide alerts to users when someone they are subscribed to makes an update. This could make Facebook infinitely more valuable as a news tool.

If Facebook can improve its search on top of that, it’s going to do something for its search market share. Nobody’s saying it’s going to overtake Google in search, but we could start to see it take away some of the searches that would otherwise have gone to Google (or another search engine), simply based on how much time people are already spending on Facebook.

It’s something to keep an eye on, at the very least. What do you think? Comment here.

There are 9 Comments. Add Yours.

Reseller Web Hosting India
September 7, 2010 at 2:49 am

Is it Ok to buy such list. Does this mean they will be informed about us and doesn’t that amount to Spam as some information is offered to them without their acceptance for the same.

Also I am quite sure that sooner or later face book will overshadow google for the reason that if one searches google there is lot of junk data and otherwise from facebook one can gather more info about the person you are dealing with or maybe from interacting with others.
Reseller Web Hosting India
September 7, 2010 at 2:44 am

Is it Ok to buy such list. Does this mean they will be informed about us and doesn’t that amount to Spam as some information is offered to them without their acceptance for the same.
San Diego Mobile Notary
September 5, 2010 at 11:00 am

Great points from the first comment, although I might have used other words. Yes, it seems that we have gone the way of American Idol and other vote-based popularity systems, rather than letting the market popularity drive the results. The better mousetrap doesn’t win again, but neither does the one marketed better. Let actual market conditions determine the placement of search results, or call out those that got there through votes as Google does with PPC ads.

Kurt
John
September 5, 2010 at 7:43 am

If Facebook could add meta search engine that crawl the web to their service then that’s the end of Google.Because Google still only a place to search no more.
R&D
September 4, 2010 at 12:21 pm

Yes, G. and Facebook are competing in many ways. Advertising and search are two of them. I know some of you are not too smart to realize this but that’s a fact. That goes in response to the first comment.

Anyway, I’m glad Facebook is getting deeper and deeper into search. No doubt Facebook will be the next Google. I think it is time for Google to retire. The company has gone nuts. Did you hear about the latest news about Adwords? They are canceling accounts left and right for not having a payment processor on the same domain. That’s abuse of power and I’m sure there will be a lot of lawsuits and anti-trust investigations in addition to the investigation that the attorney general of Texas just launched on them. Anyway, I think Clickbank will be bankrupted with this Adwords move.

Google has to go. It’s Facebook’s decade now. Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your pets. Thank you.
gnemeno123
September 4, 2010 at 2:19 am

I like this idea because a lot more people are using facebook.
vkodass
September 4, 2010 at 1:51 am

I started a website recently and purchased 10,000 Facebook fans from http://www.socialkik.com for our Facebook page and the results were amazing! I passed all my competitors when it comes to the number of Facebook fans… some competitors have been in business since 1999, but now we have 20 times more fans than them on Facebook, which made it seem that I’ve been in business much longer than them !
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Guest
September 3, 2010 at 5:50 pm

Stop saying Google and Facebook are competing FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!

If they’re competing it’s only because they’re dumbing down the quality of search to appeal to the frickin’ morons who are too stupid to be on the Internet in the first place.

When you prioritize a news story by how many people “like” it, guess what — that’s not quality search. That’s the tyranny of the majority. And considering more people vote for which butthole should win on American Idle than which butthole should sit in the White House, I think that’s pretty telling of where people’s priorities are.

The Internet was supposed to usher in an era of greater good, stronger democratic participation, and empowerment for the weak and downtrodden. Instead, it’s becoming just another advertising channel, another distraction, another idiot box, and hence is helping subvert our freedom much in the way television did decades ago.