Bing Adds Facebook Recommendations
May 26, 2011
We learned from AdAgeDigital that “Bing Adds Facebook Recommendations to Search.” It seems that Microsoft is tapping social search to aid in its continuing struggle to out do Google in search. Our concern is that search is a little “yesterday” and its troubles seem so far away. I use social information services to locate information. Don’t you?
Here’s what social search will look like on Bing, according to AdAge:
The updated service will incorporate data from the largest social network, which has become a key arbiter of content on the web. For example, a user logged into Facebook searching for news on Bing would see links to articles that a friend may have liked. People searching for generic terms, such as “cooking,” might see recipes their Facebook friends have anointed with a ‘like.’ Where a person’s Facebook friends have not sounded off on a particular search term, they would see the most popular links from the collective Facebook community, redefining search altogether.
Google, naturally, has responded by also adding social recommendations it its results. Microsoft, though, has a distinct advantage: a positive relationship with Facebook. It will be impossible for Google to surpass Bing in this arena if it can’t get a hold of data from the social media giant.
Traditional search returns noise. One person used the phrase “information glare” to describe what happens when I run a query on Bing or Google. The information blinds me. I need a way to get what I need. Maybe Bing is moving in the right direction.
What’s clear is that Facebook has momentum? Does Mr. Zuckerberg’s service provide users with information sunglasses? I like the style.
Cynthia Murrell, May 26, 2011
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
