Google had better watch its back – Facebook is on the rise.
Chris Randazzo
SEO Coordinator
It’s no secret that Google is the king of search engines; with a market share of about 70%, it’s the go-to place for anyone looking to discover information on the internet. Among numerous anti-trust lawsuits and privacy investigations, Google is faced with a short-term reprieve from regulatory issues through none other than the mighty social network, Facebook. But they’re supposed to be competitors, right?
In the long run, it’s very possible Facebook and Google will become clear competitors for not only social media, but search ads as well. As of now, none of Facebook’s content is indexed, and searching content is very limited. In the short run, Facebook’s move into the search arena may be able to take some of the pressure off of Google, but if Facebook serves ads based on friend recommendations and search results, it may be able to steal a large chunk of business away from Google. Considering Google makes nearly all its money from ads, it’s not going to go smoothly or quietly.
Furthermore, Facebook’s search capabilities have never been anything impressive – searching for friends, companies, and even interests is a pain usually not worth suffering. Recently, Facebook has expressed interest in opening the site up for search and revamping its search system entirely, a move which could prove hurtful to Google. Facebook’s ad executives have alleged that Facebook ads are worth three times that of Google’s, and since it seems Facebook’s users are much keener to share personal information than Google’s – it could be a killing blow.
Now let me complement that statement by saying I absolutely realize how large of an impact Google has on the internet, and how much of the search (and social) market they hold. Consider Facebook’s 845 million users (as of February 2012) versus Google’s approximately 1 billion unique user visits per month. While here it seems Google has the upper hand, also considering Google Plus’ 150+ million users, if you can turn off Google’s personalization settings when you search, how relevant are the ads you’re seeing? They’re based on search terms, yes, but that only goes so far. Personally, I think Facebook is going to have a much easier time selling its ads to companies since it has access to so much more of its users’ information and can tailor ads to personal information and search queries once search is better implemented.
One last thing to think about regarding social networks: how much of your information do you put on Google Plus versus Facebook, and how often do you visit? Chances are most of you are going to give Facebook the upper hand once a more robust search and ad system is implemented, giving Google a very decent run for its money. As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to contradict me in the comments. What do you think?
