Graph Search (Photo credit: Search Influence)
Facebook’s announcement of Graph Search potentially alters the landscape of search engines forever, and their impending supremacy in the search game… that is, if they hit it on the head.
You can see here how Facebook explains Graph Search (as well as sign-up for an early invitation).
Some are calling it a “game changer” such as Internet Marketing wiz, Ed Dale, while others are calling Facebook out for overhyping the move. But it can’t be argued that really fantastic user-generated search results will change the way search is done online.
While Google has been gathering user data via all of their products, tied together under the Google Plus name, Facebook essentially opens up the data and metrics they’ve only offered to advertisers to all users with access to Graph Search.
The importance of this, put simply, is that Graph Search will allow Facebook users to find things their friends like, so they are basically searching for social recommendations. Facebook advertisers have been using this data to target their ads, which is why the ads that you see when you’re on Facebook are typically relevant to your interests.
But don’t sleep on Google. While Facebook’s Graph Search — if users catch on and are able to use it very easily — can be the “game changer” that some are calling for, it also puts the eyes and pressure on Facebook. Yet, Google remains the elephant in the room, with user data extremely close to the same amount and number as what Facebook has captured (when you look at all users on YouTube, Google+, Gmail, etc.) At last count and despite all of the premature obituaries, Google+ is now the #2 social network in terms of users.
Nevertheless, Facebook has become an online addiction and way of life for the mainstream. The power in that can’t be denied and Social Graph could be the next big thing, not just for Facebook, but the Internet.