Both Bing and Google have dabbled in social search, but Facebook clearly has a competitive advantage if they do decide to enter this market. During an interview with CNBS, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, did not want to comment on future launches but if Facebook does invest in search, it could disrupt the leader in traditional search, Google, as well as companies that focus on recommendations like Yelp and Foursquare. The social network currently handles a billion search queries a day, so scale is on their side. The assumption here is that people trust their friends and are more likely to act upon their recommendations than a stranger's.
Facebook can generate tons of data from its billion users and since search is moving from keywords and links to providing answers to users to questions like "Where is the best sushi in NYC?" Facebook can capitalize on generating conversions by providing social recommendations and can move from search to commerce as well. I don't envision Facebook just adding a search box on their platform, instead they will probably provide a whole new aspect of search that is targeted around a user's social graph and the connections between them. Every day, there are more than five billion actions involving status updates and likes, which is data that can be used to triangulate a user's interests.
Of course Facebook does have other priorities such as advancing its mobile strategy and reinventing advertising, so search might not be their focus for right now, but once it does become one then Google better watch out!
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Facebook can generate tons of data from its billion users and since search is moving from keywords and links to providing answers to users to questions like "Where is the best sushi in NYC?" Facebook can capitalize on generating conversions by providing social recommendations and can move from search to commerce as well. I don't envision Facebook just adding a search box on their platform, instead they will probably provide a whole new aspect of search that is targeted around a user's social graph and the connections between them. Every day, there are more than five billion actions involving status updates and likes, which is data that can be used to triangulate a user's interests.
Of course Facebook does have other priorities such as advancing its mobile strategy and reinventing advertising, so search might not be their focus for right now, but once it does become one then Google better watch out!
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