So I was wrong - the Facebook announcement had nothing to do with mobile.... well it kinda didn't - but what it did show us was something I predicted along time ago and argued about at #SAScon last year.
It's a new search engine called Graph Search! And believe you me (which many people didnt last year - Facebook's new search function is different. Very different!)
Facebook isn't incorporating Google's search function into Facebook search. Instead, Facebook has decided to launch Graph Search to help improve the Facebook search experience. In fact, Graph Search is powered by Microsoft Bing -- which makes sense, since Bing has also integrated Facebook into its own social search function, according to VentureBeat.
What Is Facebook's New Graph Search?
So, what is Facebook's Graph Search, and how is it different from what's already out on the market? As Gizmodo puts it:
"It's an attempt to do what Google failed at doing -- pulling all the information that matters to you within the context of your social life, skipping the results that are popular to the internet, in favor of the results that are popular within a group you actually give a damn about. Not a horde of strangers."
Ahhh welcome to the world predicted by myself and others. This is Semantic search 101 on steriods and Facebook are the first to do it. Personally I thought Google Plus might have the march on them - but no one really signed up to it.
I also should have bought shares in Facebook when they were around $17 rather than waiting on till they hit $15 - which was a guess at best... but a pretty close one.
Facebook new search will utilize social signals to try to create a truly social search experience. Graph Search, according to Facebook, is focusing on four core areas: people, photos, places, and interests.
But what does it mean for greatmarketing folks like us... well rather a lot....
1) Searching for a Business
Let's say you're looking for a great coffee house. Instead of going to Google and searching for coffee houses near you -- which will return the coffee houses that have done the best job at SEO -- you could use Facebook search and get recommendations based on what your Facebook friends like the most. It will use signals like location-based check-ins, tags of that coffee house, or Likes of that Facebook Page to indicate it is a good choice.
2) Searching for Content
Facebook is also frequently used to share and surface content. If you're looking for, say, photos of your friends, the search engine will allow you to type in extremely specific long-tail queries like "Photos of my friends at Bar Around the Corner in 2011." You could expand this concept to all types of shared content such as articles, music, videos, memes, and the like (now I got marketers' minds spinning, eh?).
3) Searching for Connections
Facebook's search engine will also help users expand their social reach. Because the search function takes into account a user's likes, history, location, and proclivities, we weren't that far off when we predicted their announcement might be a new dating service.
Users will be able to search for people they want to simply talk to and network with, by inputting a search like "People who like marketing." This is the kind of functionality that will help users on a personal and professional level.
BUT - Should Marketers Care About Facebook's Search Engine?
According to Hubspot - where most of this article is from - it's hard to say for sure since this hasn't even rolled out to the public yet, I'd say, you bet your buttons marketers should care about Facebook's search engine. Inbound marketers know two things (well, they know more than two things, but here are two biggies):
Content is critical to marketing success, and ...
Social media helps give your business visibility.
This new search function is helping to not only make it easier for people to find your business and its content via Facebook, but it's also making it easier for it to reach new audiences! If you're creating the best content in the world, and maintaining an amazing Facebook business page that markets that content, it's far more likely now (or when Facebook launches Graph Search) than it was before that new audiences are going to be able to stumble upon it during their point of need.
And for those of us in marketing but with an eye on the entrepreneurial lifestyles - the potential for this is HUGE - it is much more than marketing... but that's another story... for another time.
No comments:
Post a Comment