What on earth am I talking about? What is the facebook auto liker between a Social Media Giant and a Search Giant? Aren’t they just both enormous behemoths operating in a different digital universe? No; they are not, they are much closer competitors than most of us care to acknowledge. Certainly Google wont acknowledge any similarities in the two platforms, that’s for sure. Although most people on the inside of the digital space have held the view I am about to share with you all for some time now, it will be news to most.
Let me start by just highlighting one thing; as I know most of you will tune out very quickly and put this rant into the realms of total gibberish! But let me point out that only a short while ago Google shut down its 21st failed project! Why is this relevant? Well just to highlight the fact that they (Google) don’t get it right all the time, they, like all business, and individuals for that matter (Richard Branson, as a great example) are not infallible, so please do not take the view that everything is and always will be Google search. At least until you hear me out.
It is no secret that Google dominate search; but what type of search? (Did you know there was other ways to search online?) Well Google is index search. Currently index search only accounts for half, yes half, of all online search, of course it was originally all online search (remember Alta Vista, also closed down recently), Oh and Yahoo. remember that giant of search?. The simple fact is that Google is already fading out; losing Search share at a remarkable rate. Yes, Google still dominate Index search, as strong as ever, but overall users are looking to other platforms for their search.
Why? Simple again; Google is keyword based, the sites that dominate page one of Google (especially for large Niches) are SEO to the max, cost serious dollars and generally are losing the deliver-ability that they once had, meaning quality content for the user is being depleted by a computer, not human interaction or engagement.
Facebook on the other hand, use something much more valuable than keywords, they use user interaction and engagement. This is created by online profiling of you, the Facebook member.
With the introduction of the Facebook Graph Search, it merely highlighted this theory a short while ago. This theory is also being backed up with the introduction of Facebook Hashtags, no they were not following twitter. In short, Facebook are now constantly (although they always have been) building an online profile of over 1 billion people worldwide (its members). Facebook, unlike Google, has members (yes I know, Google does too, Gmail, Google+, etc. and you sign in, but its nothing like Facebook) it is this member base that is the true power behind Facebook; The ability to “profile” each and every user.
Had you ever wondered why you are always asked to like stuff? Hello! it is to assist this profiling. I don’t want to sound like George Orwell here, but that’s whats going on. Bear in mind, the average Facebook profile has music listened too, movies watched, favorite TV shows, Sports, Hobbies, Pages liked and the list goes on and on. Facebook know you!
