updated below
Facebook has added a new option for its search bar, allowing users to search for advertising pages.
This continues a steady creep in search options, which already includes tabs to search for people, groups, events and applications.
It raises a new question about Facebook’s ambitions, as it finds itself the David against the Google Goliath. Will it pull out the ultimate slingshot: a full-fledged search engine for the web, not just the Facebook site?
This question is significant, because Facebook has so much data about people and preferences that it could potentially add quality to search results. If it were to duplicate a “good-enough” clone of Google search results — possibly by building on Microsoft’s search engine — and then add in its own data (all of the stuff that is password protected and which Google’s spiders can’t get to), Facebook could potentially provide a first class search engine that really rivals Google.
Rewind to the summer of 2006. That’s when speculation arose that MySpace — at the time, growing at a break-neck pace — might unleash its own search engine to rival Google. But MySpace, mainly an entertainment company, couldn’t figure it out. In August of that year, MySpace announced Google would power its web search and ads as part of a nearly $1 billion deal over three years. MySpace was content to do a web search deal without tight look-and-feel integration. However, that company suffers from a lack of technology ingenuity. Facebook, by contrast, is led by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He has a strong technology background and maintains a technology focus for the company.
This is speculation, but let’s take a gander at what Facebook’s search would look like. Facebook would first license Microsoft (or even Google’s or Yahoo’s) search engine to power its own web search. The web search tab would be just like “People” or “Pages” (”Pages” is the name given to Facebook’s advertising pages) in the image below. Facebook could record which users click which results. Over time, Facebook could use the data to enhance search results based on what networks of friends click, an idea some call “social search.” If successful, might Facebook develop a major sustainable competitive advantage in search over Google? This would surely create a buzz — enough excitement that people would notice, and start trying it out. Facebook would have to work mighty hard at this, because Yahoo and Microsoft have both failed to stem Google’s momentum, despite major investments to do so. But Facebook has some other big advantages: It is still private, and resides just miles from Google’s campus. Luring over top search experts with stock options (albeit, expensive ones) could be like shooting fish in a barrel. Facebook has gotten a new chief financial officer, Gideon Yu, as well as top engineers from the search giant already.
In August, I attended a talk by Marissa Mayer, Google’s leading executive on search, who said Google has worked on social search. However, she was somewhat dismissive of the opportunity. She said social search hadn’t shown much promise, but that if someone were to prove its worth, Google would be in a good position to incorporate it. She said Facebook is a communication tool, whereas search is a research or informational tool, meaning that social search may not make sense.
A common complaint by advertisers about Facebook is that users want to stay on Facebook doing what they’re doing — visiting friends’ profiles, checking out pictures, reading the news feed, and so on. Users are less likely to click on search results (or ads beside search results) because unlike Google, they’re not necessarily searching for things. If search becomes efficient on Facebook, that could all change. However, some might question if users would be willing to click on web results inside Facebook because that would take the user away from Facebook.
That concern is relevant to ads on Facebook, but not necessarily relevant to whether users would do web search on Facebook. Users may want to do something when they are done with Facebook, and many times that means web search. More than five percent of Google search visitors used MySpace right before Googling. In other words, social network users will conduct web searches. It’s just a matter of getting users to do web search on the social network site, rather than navigate away to Google or another search engine.
What do we know about the number of Facebook searches to date?
Facebook users do more than 600 million searches per month. Facebook users are trained to use the search box to search for friends’ names, groups, events, applications, and now Pages. Teaching users to use the box for web search is not far behind. Doing a web search — something like “flights to San Jose” or “Tahoe ski lift tickets” — is often distinct from what Facebook users currently search for — something like a person’s or group’s name. That means when users do Google-type searches in the Facebook search box, Facebook would be able to deliver web results right away without any extra steps. In contrast, MySpace search isn’t as well structured, and forces users to click a drop-down box to do a web search.
[Update: Danny Sullivan, search expert and publisher of the blog Search Engine Land, wrote in the comments that Facebook will need to develop its own web search technology if it wants to go head-to-head with Google in web search. As proof, he compared Yahoo and AOL. Both companies outsourced search, but later only Yahoo built in-house technology. Of the two, today only Yahoo is considered a dominant search player.
No one would argue that Facebook would be better served to own great search technology than be dependent on licensing it. But it's worth noting Yahoo had something AOL didn't: sticky properties like Yahoo Mail that each day attract tens of millions of visitors to Yahoo. Yahoo funnels these users into Yahoo web search. AOL by contrast watched its dial-up business disintegrate along with its search share. Facebook users are at least as active as mail users, with over 50% of Facebook users returning each day. Facebook could funnel these users into Facebook web search.]
Finally, here’s some back of the envelope math by Facebook observer Lee Lorenzen. Note that Lorenzen often gushes in his assessment of Facebook, because he has a business that depends on its ecosystem, but his assessment is interesting nonetheless. Even without launching into full-fledged search, he says Facebook could make good money. Lorenzen projects Facebook will have 200 million active users by December 2008. In his model, Lorenzen assumes each user would do one web search per day, but that assumption may not apply to MySpace given the company only collects a few hundred million dollars per year from Google for their search and ad deal. Still, with Facebook searching for ways to make money, you’ve got to wonder why Facebook wouldn’t try to build this out more.
Lorenzen wrote:
“[G]iven the time spent by Facebook users inside of Facebook and given that a search box lives in the left-hand nav of every Facebook page, it seems quite possible that the half of all Facebook user who come to the site every day might do at least one web search (when Facebook picks a partner to power their web search). So for 2008, this works out to 100 million * 0.5 * 365 days = 18 billion web searches per year. Google handles about 64 billion US web searches per year and monetizes these searches at around $0.26 per search == $16 billion. Assuming Facebook’s search engine partner only monetizes these at $0.13 per search due to their relative lack of Cost Per Click search inventory and Facebook users’ dislike of leaving Facebook, this still works out to $2.3 Billion in search revenue in 2008 and $4.6 Billion in search revenue for 2009. Assuming their search partner takes 20%, this leaves $1.8 billion in 2008 and $3.6 billion in 2009 for Facebook. Not bad for a business that is ultimately no more complicated than Facebook signing an “AdSense for Search” type of deal with Microsoft, Yahoo or Ask.”
[Disclosure: Doug Sherrets owns a small number of Facebook shares.]
Tags: co:Facebook, co:google
32 Comments
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Jon Turow said:
I wonder whether it should be considered a foregone conclusion that web search must ultimately become primary revenue driver for facebook.
Just as Google has challenged Microsoft with a powerful product in a non-core area for MS, couldn’t facebook (and MS) challenge Google right back with ads keyed to information folks have already posted about themselves? If that’s true, facebook should have no problem relying on Live search instead of building their own from ground up.
One interesting implication of that might be that Microsoft needs them more than they need Microsoft…
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Hashim Warren said:
Even before the deal MySpace sent a significant amount of traffic to Google search.
A social network is a natural place for users to initiate searches, so a full fledged Facebook search engine would make sense.
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/2006/05/myspace_is_1_google_traffic_so.html
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Tollie Williams said:
This is just part of implementing Facebook’s Pages, part of their new “Business Solutions” section.
It’s not web crawling, and it’s probably going to use the same “degree of closeness” (they have a better term for this, but I don’t remember it at the moment) algorithm that they use for People, and Group search, etc. Therefor, not even a hint at attempting to compete with anyone over *web* search.
IMHO, this article is little more than a digg compatible title combined with some speculation based on the number of users on Facebook.
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Observer said:
I know Facebook is the flavor-of-the-month, but it seems to me that people use it for what it is - a social network. That is, they use it to communicate and interact with their friends, not to search the web or buy books or book vacations. While I do like and use Facebook for its social functions, anytime I want to search the web I go right to Google. I don’t really see anyone searching the web from Facebook directly, the same as I don’t see people searching the web from Wikipedia or ESPN or Youtube. Why can’t a social network JUST be a social network, and leave the search, commerce, and the rest of the online world to others who can do it better. Do we all really want to spend our online lives living in a Facebook profile page?
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Doug Sherrets said:
Jon, thank you for commenting. Good points. It does sound like an opportunity for Microsoft to team with Facebook and compete directly with Google’s core product. I think this is a point more people should be discussing. It seems to be a given to most people that Google will always dominate web search. The opportunity is great enough that it is at least worth it for Facebook to try some things in web search. Search engines users would likely benefit from having a real competitor to Google in web search. If there remains no real threat to Google’s dominant market share, then it would be unfortunate if there would be less innovation from Google in web search as a result.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Hashim, thank you for commenting. You’re right, MySpace has been sending a significant amount to Google of traffic for quite a while. It will be interesting to see if Facebook does release web search and aims to keep users on Facebook doing web search in addition to everything else.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Tollie, thank you for commenting. You’re right that Pages is part of Facebook’s Business offerings and Facebook’s not yet doing as much web crawling as Google. You said Facebook’s move is “not even a hint at attempting to compete with anyone over *web* search.” I disagree. If you have watched the design of Facebook search evolve, tabs have been added. Adding “Web” search results as a tab is one step away. MySpace did a search deal with Google, so why wouldn’t Facebook? Search ads would likely generate significant revenues for Facebook. Once Facebook has a search deal in place, why not use the data collected, things like which users click which links, to try to build a better search engine?
To be clear, this article is not about attracting digg mentions. The point is start a conversation about the real possibility that Facebook could build a search engine that directly competes with and takes search share from Google. Google makes billions from web search. Imagine what Facebook could do if it develops a significant sustainable competitive advantage in web search. This is a real possibility given Facebook’s reach, user data and technology focus. It will be interesting to see what Facebook comes up with.
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Anonymity said:
It seems that for web search to be successful for Facebook, a perception change would need to take place. As Observer mentioned, right now when I think facebook, I think connection and “friends” information, and not general knowledge information. Moreover, Facebook is perceived more as a closed ecosystem without many points of exit (except perhaps through ads). If it does pursue the web search route, then assuming its end goal is to provide relevant answers to the search “questions”, how it presents those answers in relation to the rest of its ecosystem will be crucial to how much users may embrace and accept them.
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Jope said:
I think everyone should take 2 steps back with all this Facebook idiocy: 99% of people using the web and Google haven’t even heard of Facebook, for crying out loud!
Sheesh…
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Into the Wild said:
There are a few general things to be said, and then a few specific:
a) Just because they haven’t hear of it, doesn’t mean they won’t. The key word is “Yet”. Google was not too famous until it was. See the future. Don’t get caught in the present.b) If there is one lesson that is emerging from the new internet, its that doing just one thing really well doesn’t work anymore. Just look at the way Google quickly turned away from their proclamation “we aim to do one thing really well.” That is no longer their viewpoint. There are only a few truly successful internet companies for a reason. Unlike the traditional economy, where if your core competency was in building cars, it probably wouldn’t be too easy to start making consumer products. Forget the amount of Capital Expenditure and expertise that would have to be brought in, it’s simply not how things worked. The internet world is different. In fact, often the core competencies of one idea leverage on another. Look at the way Google, a search company, has spread into e-mail, IM, product search, checkout, social networking, etc. The internet is about connectivity, network effects, centralization. This applies to the business model as well.
In specific:
A)Facebook is in prime position to become more than just a social network. They have tons of valuable data on individuals, the interaction between those individuals, and common aspects between a large base of users. Furthermore, they have something that most companies on the internet do not, User trust. In a world where we’re still not comfortable with the privacy levels on the internet, Facebook is poised to be the paradigm shifter.
The key for Facebook is to start leveraging their data. The data itself is worthless and not a barrier to entry or a competitive advantage. Yes, they have the network effects and Metclafe’s law. But so did AOL. So did many others. Closed systems are not an advantage that will stand for a long time.
The question is, what do you do with all that data and trust. Facebook will have to develop their strengths in that area. How to mine the data. If they can, they will be able to thrive even when the wall comes down. They have taken great strides lately with their ad announcements. I think a search engine might be a logical next step. People already spend a significant amount of time there. If Facebook can deliver a powerful search application, built on the ideas of “social search” and possibly natural language search, they will certainly have an audience.
Google started as a search engine, and grew into a social network of sorts (gmail, gtalk, orkut, igoogle, etc). Facebook is doing it the other way around. There is definitely room for debate which one is a better approach. Why don’t we just wait and see.
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Mrinal said:
Don’t see it going that way and here is why:
1) FB wants all of it happening “within”. Even messages etc - you have to come to the site to read it
2) Search is not a page views business, social networks are and FB for sure is gunning for thatThe DNA is different.
Intent and hence context seems to be missing and hence tapping into better monetization.
Social networks do not tap into intent as much (in business networks - it does), they tap into curiosity and if FB is doing everything to funnel it all into NewsFeeds (Pages, Social Ads, Polls, Beacon), then they should add search to NewsFeeds - for the 99.8% stories that we do not see.
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Danny Sullivan said:
I see this as simply a way to find those advertising pages that were rolled out last week — and a huge oversight not to have been there from the start. For example, there was tons of press about that Coca Cola page — but then you couldn’t find the damn thing to add it.
Will Facebook take on Google for web search. No. Web search is hard, very hard, and it won’t have the energy, time or expertise to build an index and start ranking it. See this for specific thoughts on social mixed with web search:
http://searchengineland.com/070827-121805.php
Instead, they’ll just use web search from newest buddy Microsoft, as we wrote about in October:
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Danny Sullivan said:
To add to the above — I’m sure we’ll see integration within Facebook and maybe Facebook-flavored results based on Microsoft’s technology. But Facebook also risks the Yahoo / AOL problem. Both players outsourced search to others. Yahoo eventually decided it needed to own the tech, and it remains a huge web search player against Google. AOL didn’t — and while it has other issues, it isn’t a major web search player in many books. Microsoft, which waited years to develop its own tech, struggles to gain share. Owning the core tech is important if you want to be a search player. So if Facebook really wants to take on Google, it probaly needs the tech, not just tweak the tech of others. Of course, when/if Microsoft just buys the entire thing…
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Moe Glitz said:
In your report you state that Google handles 64 Billion Searches every year in the USA - which makes them $0.26 for every paid search against annual figures of $16 Billion.
Are you sure that either of these figures are not global totals instead of a US only one.
Because if it is global in either of these figures that these sums are incorrect. -
Ido said:
Facebook is going in the right direction. Although, I don’t think they are going to take any market share from Google,Yahoo,MSN and Ask in the near future… they are going to improve and gain market share after users will start to drive traffic to product pages. Moreover, facebook can match content to other pages and that might be very powerful (similar to what you get on gmail today).
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NDL said:
Taking on Google in full-fledged web search seems to be a pretty hefty task for a young company like FB at this time. With ~50 million users (and most of whom are there for simple social functions), it seems like quite a stretch to take on Goliath given the past failed attempts for social search to challenge Google. For me, two main things come to mind on this topic:
1. If FB launches its own engine it will only be used by FB users…how can this compete with Google who has access to all of the web’s users? Is this just about generating some amount of revenues for FB?
2. A major hurdle for FB to overcome is that is is an extremely successful and widely-recognized social NETWORKING site that has been tagged and re-tagged as such…in order for users to begin using it for purchasing plane tickets and the like, it will have to undergo a facelift to convince users and the public that it can be more. This is not impossible (as Google has certainly expanded beyond search), but I wonder if users WANT to use FB for more than Social Networking. And, web search is a utility that everyone uses so it may be easier to expand on that platform than from a platform that many view as simply entertainment.
FB may be aiming to be the platform for the Net that Microsoft is for the PC…in other words, users keep FB up and running at all times and use it for everything from search, blogging, news, and social shopping to IM and video/photo sharing. This may prove to be successful and lucrative…however, I seriously doubt that Google will sit by and watch and I am not sure that social networking can be the slingshot to achieve this full-spectrum web platform. I think Google has a better shot with its superior search combined with calendaring, document sharing/editing, the new open social, and the international brand recognition and trust.
I guess I am still waiting to see how FB will leverage its users to generate revenues and how it will prove sustainable if/when a recession hits. I think that social shopping is one avenue it should pursue to leverage its demographics–which are the #1 purchasing group in the US–and that seems more feasible to me than launching full-fledged search.
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Mariana Oliveira said:
Thanks for this great article! I’d recommmended it
to the readers of our Venture Commons
blog. -
Eugene Shteyn said:
The development of a general purpose search engine on par with Google/Yahoo would require too much effort from FB. This investment, measured in time, money and talent, is better spent elsewhere, e.g. platform itself, service robustness, new APIs, new business models, etc.
It doesn’t make sense for FB to compete with Google on Google’s turf. Of course, it could be tempting to go after easy “search” money, but FB doesn’t have to do it. The recent Microsoft deal gives FB enough cushion to sustain a focused development effort that would serve its customers much better than just another search engine. Let Google and Yahoo run searcher; let FB develop the platform and think of new business models beyond charge-per-search. -
Kurt said:
As a search marketing professional who lives and breathes search, Google, Facebook, Web 2.0, and every other web buzzword known to man, I find myself a poor representation of the mainstream public. But the question that keeps coming up in my mind is…does the public really WANT a social networking application such as Facebook (which holds so much personal information about them) to be their search engine as well? Besides the obvious “core competency” issue, it seems to me that this is putting way too much power in one property’s hands. Google gets hammered constantly about privacy issues. This would be small potatoes versus privacy screams that would fly across the web if Facebook grew to be Google-sized.
Additionally, the fact that MySpace is a major upstream traffic source for Google (per the Hitwise blog post referenced above) doesn’t mean it would translate the same for an in-house search function at Facebook. I would suggest that its possible to look at this data and say that Google gets so much traffic from MySpace BECAUSE its Google. Don’t forget that Google owns the #1 global brand (Milward Brown Optimor market research study). If you put a less familiar search function on Facebook, does it get the same traction? I have doubts.
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Doug Sherrets said:
First of all, thank you again to everyone for commenting. I have a new round of comments I will post now.
“Anonymity,” you’re right, success for Facebook web search will require some perception change. But this is not unlike the perception change needed for the release of any new product. I don’t think the fact Facebook is perceived in any particular way necessarily closes off success for new products. Of course Facebook has been successful in releasing many new products. I think it’s natural to add web search since Facebook users are already regularly conduct searches on Facebook.
Your last point about “relevance” is interesting. I think Facebook search has the potential to help deliver search results in ways popular search engines, such as Google, do not currently provide. For example, imagine if you could enhance your search results based on data Facebook already collects. Facebook can associate searches with a particular person’s age, gender, education, location, interests and more. The idea then is that searches could be enhanced depending on who has searched before given certain characteristics. For example, you might want search results for a particular topic enhanced based on what experts in the topic use, or based on people located nearby or of similar age. It remains to be seen whether users would consider these enhancements as providing better relevance, but it certainly would be interesting. So the question then would be if these interesting new ways to search could in fact draw a significant number of users to Facebook web search. The good news is that Facebook can test all of this.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Jope, I think the following comment by “Into The Wild” does a good job addressing this. The point is because it’s early doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t happen. If Facebook continues to grow at this rate, then imagine what happens when you have as many active users on Facebook as Google attracts. Then consider what would happen if those users start using a Facebook-enhanced search engine. At the least, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
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Doug Sherrets said:
“Into The Wild”, you provided some great comments. I like your points about how a key thing Facebook has that most companies online don’t have is user trust. Facebook is doing a great job of creating an environment where users both are willing and want to share information about themselves with their friends. Good point that open systems are helpful for building a long-term sustainable advantage, and really Platform is a big part of that. I liked your last paragraph. It is interesting to consider how a really popular social utility like Facebook could evolve into a great search engine, all while Google is basically aiming to go from search into a social network.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Mrinal, you said Facebook wants everything to happen inside the site. Given Facebook has said they want to be the social operating system for the web, I would expect Facebook to continue to open up. At the same time, there is a lot of opportunity for aggregating information useful and interesting to users. The problem now is it’s hard to let your friends know what you are doing around the web. Beacon helps solve that by, with your consent, notifying friends of what you do on third-party websites.
You said that search is not a page views business. Fair enough, but I still think Facebook can add web search and basically direct users to web search once they are done using Facebook. In that case, Facebook web search would have all the benefits of identifying user intent as Google web search has. Of course Google would still start with a big edge given all the data Google has stored.
On the topic of search of News Feeds, it’s up to Facebook to figure out what of that information would be useful in social search. Given enough tries, I think they have at least a chance of finding a way that enhances search enough to actually take share from Google search.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Danny, weeks ago I included your comments and addressed them in this post.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Ido, you’re right, it might take a while to take share from the big search engines. I noted in the post that Yahoo and Microsoft have spent millions on search, but still lose share to Google, so it’s a big challenge. I look forward to seeing how the content matching might be developed.
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Doug Sherrets said:
NDL, good point that search limited to Facebook would constrain usage to only Facebook users. If Facebook is able to socially enhance search in a way that is not necessarily tied to users’ friends, then it’d be possible to provide Facebook enhanced search to all users, whether Facebook registered or not.
Good point that getting into search would probably require convincing many users to expand beyond what they primarily do on the site. That said, it might not take a “facelift” as you said, but instead maybe users can simply use the search box they are already accustomed to using on Facebook.
You’re right that Google will be a strong competitor and benefits from being the current search leader. That said, I’m not sure if Google’s calendar, document sharing or many of their other services are all that relevant to whether Google will succeed where Facebook is competing. On your point about OpenSocial, it certainly will be interesting to see how that develops. Certainly OpenSocial is being supported by websites with a lot of users.
If Facebook can keep rapidly growing its user base, then it will be in a position where it could funnel users into search. This is something Yahoo already does. Beyond that, a big advantage for Facebook is that it has the potential to actually enhance search results. Since Facebook is so actively used by its members and can direct users to whatever search engine it features, then you can’t really count them out of the web search discussion. If Facebook does find a way to enhance results that users want, then the question is about how much search share Facebook can earn.
On your point about social shopping, I think Beacon is a part of enabling that. Users get to share what they’re buying with friends and the web stores get free advertising. The more financial benefit the web stores get, the more likely they are to promote Beacon. Facebook has the potential to enable users to share what they do around the web with friends. In that case, Facebook basically would make the web social where today in many places it is not.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Mariana, thank you for recommending the story.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Eugene, you’re right it would take a lot of effort from Facebook to build a search engine on par with Google/Yahoo. To that point, I suggested in the post that Facebook start with a search deal with Google, Yahoo or Microsoft. That way Facebook can start with a good search engine, then work on enhancing it. I agree that right now it’s good to focus on the things you mentioned like the platform itself. I agree that Facebook can become much better than just another search engine. To get there, search profits could be used to invest more in developing the platform.
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Doug Sherrets said:
Kurt, to your point, I think an important thing to ask is that if Facebook can enhance search, then why not make better search available to users?
Right, any site with a lot of users probably has high upstream numbers like MySpace. The challenge then is about keeping users on your site to do the search rather than navigating to Google.com or using a Google toolbar. As an example, Yahoo does a good job funneling their users to Yahoo web search once they’re done using Yahoo pages.
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matt said:
A don’t love the facebook results, only 2 next page?! No advanced features!
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Weed said:
Given that the current search facility at Facebook is utterly useless, the idea of them developing any form of web search is nothing less than farcical.
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Chris said:
The Facebook search engine contains so many bugs it never really worked anyway. So the censorship point seems rather moot. If you don’t believe this, you’re either not a Facebook user or have never used the search.
Try searching people with a simple keyword like “female” in a large network like San Francisco. It claims there are 406 results yet the tab claims 500+ results. There are, of course, around a quarter million profiles in the SF network, half of which are female. The first page of results contains around 25% redundant profiles. The second page contains around 25% redundant (within the page) and around 25% from the first page (around 50% total). The third page contains 25% new redundant results, etc. By the fifth page or so, you’ve reached the point of diminishing returns. The search has broken down to the point where it’s useless. But if you search all 40 pages you’ll conclude that there are perhaps a few dozen true results for “female”.
At least they recently fixed a long-standing bug where each page returned a completely random number of results (1-10), not the 10 which it was supposed to.
Yes, the guys who run Facebook certainly aren’t users of their own website or they’d make the search engine work so they could use it themselves. History has shown that if a company’s employees aren’t users of their own product there’s a very high likelihood that it’s doomed. And thus next-to-worthless from an investment standpoint.
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11:32 am
VentureBeat » Google’s first social search step — your vote, please said:
[...] discussion about Facebook enhancing web search through using social data, Google has seemingly responded with [...]
11:19 pm
Thought Leader » Llew Claasen » Facebook 2: The search engine is coming said:
[...] they look for friends, interest groups, applications and more recently even special-purpose, commercially driven pages. You don’t even have to teach people how to search; more than 5% are leaving Facebook to [...]
8:02 am
Facebook search expands: will it take on Google? | Venture Commons Blog said:
[...] the full article: http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/11/facebook-search-expands-will-it-take- on-google/ addthis_url = [...]
9:02 am
VentureBeat » Google’s Marissa Mayer: Social search is the future said:
[...] At an event in August, Marissa Mayer, Google’s leading VP in search, said social search hasn’t shown much promise, but if it does, Google would be in a good position to incorporate it. I wrote about that here. [...]
10:44 am
Google’s Marissa Mayer: Social search is the future at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid said:
[...] At an event in August, Marissa Mayer, Google’s leading VP in search, said social search hasn’t shown much promise, but if it does, Google would be in a good position to incorporate it. I wrote about that here. [...]