The Battle Of The Titans

It’s no secret that Google and Facebook have one thing in common—their love of your info! It’s to serve you better, remember? While Google tried to dig into Facebook’s success by going social (several times), Facebook is now trying to take a piece out of Google. How? Facebook is revamping its search!

My first reaction to this news was “about time!” but quickly followed with disbelief. I find it ironic since Facebook clearly knows how futile it is to try and top Google at what it does best. It would be like Google trying to compete with Facebook with its own social network! Oh, wait……

Up until now Facebook hasn’t cared about search. Why would it? It’s a social network—the social network. Google is the search giant. I don’t tell people to “search the internet” for something, I say “Google it.”

If Facebook has one thing on its side, it has a lot of data. A lot of your data. Timeline was a great way for you to access the photos, statuses, comments and events of your profile the story of your life, but there’s still a lot more data that could be accessed. The search bar in the header lets you search for friends, maybe some other stuff like videos, groups, events, status updates, companies, etc.—but that’s it. I guess you can also search the web, but it’s powered by Bing…

Right now Google holds 67% of the web search empire, but a lot of other big names get used more for search before Facebook does. Don’t get me wrong, Facebook’s search works, but it doesn’t work well. Soon it could though.

Times have changed and search algorithms rely more on social interaction and engagement above all else. If people aren’t talking about your product or brand, you could find yourself dethroned from that top search spot you’ve relished in for years. Social comes first, and Facebook has that covered. Hands down.

If Google wants to shoot itself in the foot on a rampage to move from search to social, then there may be some market share for Facebook to reclaim from the aftermath. Google’s attempt at social may be the boost Facebook needs for it to go from social to search.

Do you think this is another move to serve you better or just Facebook looking to profit. Maybe it’s both? You tell me.