Who do you trust more? An algorithm, or your “Friends”?

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Let me couch this blog by saying we're not sure this is how Facebook is going to do their search but it may be close.

Facebook is banking on the idea that people will accept the advice of their friends over that of a computer. It is their goal to turn Facebook’s 500+ million users into an internal referral source for movies, restaurants and yes…attorneys.

When you do a search on Google, you are letting an algorithm suggest information that is relevant to your query. Facebook is working on a search engine that will deliver results that your “friends” “Like”.

Business pages on Facebook have a “Like” button. Once someone clicks the “Like” button all of their “friends” in their network will be notified that they like a particular restaurant, charity or attorney. So, if one person has 200 “friends” all 200 people will be aware of your law firm. That means, every time you receive a “Like” hundreds of people will now be aware of your business. Even better, eventually, when someone searches the Facebook network for an attorney, your law firm will show up in the results if any of their “friends” is connected to you.

At Omnipresent SEO, we believe social media is going to be a big part of the future for law firms. Think 10 years back and how many law firms had websites. Nowadays, if you don’t have one people look at you strange. The same is going to happen with social media resources like Facebook.

Below are two great articles that give more insight into how big and revolutionary this type of search will be.

Facebook Patent on "Curated Search"

Facebook Goes After Google's Market

Posted by {Omnipresent SEO} Thursday, April 21, 2011 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Yet Another Move by Google to Enhance Social Media's Role in Search

Friday, February 18, 2011

As we have written about before, Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) is creeping into the world of search.  It makes perfect sense, really.  A big part of Google's traditional algorithm is evaluating how many links come into a web site, and who those links are from.  Think of it as peer review.  

But in that scenario, the "peers" are other web sites, not people you know.  Ah, but the people I know are all on my social networks.  What if Google and the other search engines could know who my friends are and then cross reference what they like when giving me answers to my queries?

That is precisely what they are doing with the announcement of Social Search (see Google's blog post here). 

This isn't an entirely new product.  Previously, Google announced the incorporation of similar things in the SERPS, but this takes it to a new level. 

Conspicuously missing from Google's Social Search, however, is Facebook.   The two companies have not been playing nice lately (Facebook has been raiding Google's best employees, and recently Google stopped allowing Facebook to access its users Gmail accounts, etc), and I assume that is a factor in all of this.  But for Social Search to really have an impact, it is going to need to include Facebook eventually, and I am sure that it will.  (The other scenario, which is certainly possible, is that Facebook will finally add a SEARCH feature that only shows results from your connections). 

The bottom line is this:  search is changing, and it is obvious that it is moving towards a much more customizable and socially based system.  If your business isn't yet listed on the Social Sites, soon you might find yourself no longer listed on most people's search results either. 

MORE INFORMATION:

Why A Business Should Be On Facebook


A Video From Google About Their Social Search Update:

Posted by {Omnipresent SEO} Friday, February 18, 2011 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Why a Business Should Be on Facebook

Friday, August 06, 2010

Facebook has reached over 500 million users and is becoming is becoming one of the most popular destinations on the web.  If you own a business and are not on Facebook, you may be behind the curve already.  Facebook, unlike search engines, is a personalized community of friends, coworkers and family.  These are the people who you have built relationships with and trust.  A search engine is a cold, heartless, program that provides you results based on an algorithm.  Facebook is a place where people share their likes and dislikes about everything from food to movies to doctors to lawyers. 

The video below addresses the shift that is happening on the web.  Sheryl Sandberg is a pretty good resource for this information considering she started at Google and is now working at Facebook.

Posted by {Omnipresent SEO} Friday, August 06, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink