Comments on: Shocker: According To Facebook Talking Points, Facebook Is The Future Of Search

By: Elon Bomani

Elon Bomani — Sun, 16 May 2010 12:34:00 +0000

I am glad that Google has some competition. Facebook is keeping Google on their toes. They are still the God of the internet, but Facebook is catching up.

Facebook tops Google For weekly traffic in the US-Erik Qualman

Good PR, Bad PR it is still PR that will convert into more money for Facebook.

ElonBomani
http://www.elonbomani.com

By: Thom Mitchell

Thom Mitchell — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:55:52 +0000

Facebook’s reliance on the power of the network effect will only go so far. The network effect is real and valuable, but reaches diminishing, and even negative, returns at a certain point. Adam’s point that Facebook was more interesting when it was limited to the College world is a good one. I think you accurately nailed it with your assessment that this is a PR statement more aimed at shaping sales discussions than it is about facts or reality. I’m not a SEO expert by any means but even I know that SEO is just a tactic that supports a larger strategy.

While I appreciate and am likely to click on the content suggestions from my friends on Facebook, I don’t look to them as the experts on everything. I prefer using curated content of substance which I find using my search engine of my choice, Bing for example, to go to a curated site – like the NYT or WSJ or NPR. For breadth and depth of knowledge, I’ll choose a professional resource; for randomly generated interesting things I’ll continue to trust my friends as well as the other usual suspects.

By: Adam Singer

Adam Singer — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:47:04 +0000

Hey Jesse, thanks for swinging by to comment. You’re right, I do have a bit of negativity to Facebook. They are trying to be all things to all people. And…it’s boring and not very useful to me. To be perfectly honest, I found them more useful when they were a pure university product. Now that the universe is on there, the network is all but useless for me. That aside, I think those who specialize in web products are who will win the future game, not these monolithic products that try and do literally everything. Even Google today is attempting to branch out, but the point is in a long tail app world, specialization makes sense to win the game, especially as things become easier from a dev standpoint. Just my opinion of course.

By: Jesse Stay

Jesse Stay — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:00:27 +0000

Adam, I am by far no SEO expert, and I’m especially not a marketer (I’m a developer), so I appreciate you weighing in here. It’s good to have someone who understands marketing share their expertise on the subject.

Regarding search, again, I’m by far not a marketer, but to me it makes sense that Facebook is a different type of search strategy, and a different type of search. Rather than trying to find “things”, you’re trying to place yourself so that your brand is found easily and appears in the middle of peoples’ conversations. So, for instance, when people are mentioning your brand in status updates, you want your website to appear when they @mention it to their friends. In addition, as people are looking to discuss your brand, your hope is that happens on your site, or enables them to easily bring your website into their conversations. That is the type of search Facebook is solving.

I think it’s wise for any brand to be a part of this strategy. You’re doing no harm by making it easy for Facebook to include you in the conversations of its users. You’re not taking away your website, nor are you directing your users to go discuss on Facebook. In fact, you’re doing just the opposite – you’re encouraging your Facebook users to discuss your brand right on your own website using the identities and friendships they established there. I don’t see any problem with that, in fact, I see nothing but win for brands with that strategy.

Anyway, I sense some negativity towards Facebook on your part – I’m not sure the reasoning for that negativity, but it’s by far not unique so I’ll give you that. My post was definitely not link bait, but rather an idea I had that I thought I would share – I thought it was an interesting thought, and one that I’m using as I develop architecture for the organization I work for that could help others, and I have seen success with. That’s the only reason I publish – you’ll notice the only major advertising on the blog is an ad asking people to donate to the LDS Church’s efforts in Haiti. If that has caused link baiting, I’m proud of that.

The fact is Facebook has 500 million *active* users. They’ve made it easy for brands to get in front of those users, and they’ve made it easy for brands to enable those users to share with their other 200+ friends on the network. I don’t think brands are doing themselves any favors by ignoring that fact. Brands should be using these tools, alongside any other tools they’re using to get in front of the user.

I hope I haven’t offended in trying to share those ideas.

By: Josh Braaten

Josh Braaten — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:36:08 +0000

I think you’re correct in your assessment here… for now. A better search engine in Facebook won’t change the users’ intent within the tools. Unless there is something to buy, or a change in intent, in Facebook, it’s going to be about finding friends and other “social graph” objects.

If, however, Gary Vee’s recent comments on the Six Pixels of Separation podcast (by Mitch Joel) are correct, Facebook is pushing hard towards virtual currency. If (or once) this happens, we’ll be looking at a different story altogether.

All these little pieces, the search, the like button, integrating with websites across the web… it’s all build up to Facebook ecommerce.