Excitement seems to be bubbling about Facebook's Open Graph Search Engine - will it work, will it be useful and, excuse the pun, will it be liked?
People who spend time on the internet will have noticed that over the past few months the option to 'like' an article or a website is becoming commonplace and now it's becoming clear what Facebook has been gearing up to for many months. These web pages that are enabled with Open Graph Meta Data and have the 'like' button embedded will apparently start showing up in Facebook searches. A socially driven, voice of the collective, power to the people type of search engine is upon us but does the mob really know best?
Forgive me for being cynical, but I cannot see this breed of search replacing Google anytime soon. The method Facebook will routinely use to produce results will be based on the number of people who like the page or item but just because thousands of people have clicked a like button, it doesn't mean it's credible or relevant, accurate or intelligent in any way. To like something is so meh; it has no real description, passion or significance behind it. I like interesting tech articles, I like cheese, I like my Mom and I like the postmodernist theories of Jean Baudrillard but it would be absurd to think these are liked or rated equally in my life.
A like is a pretty arbitrary act when you think about it and it's far too easy to click on, even by accident if you're using a touch phone. Likes are being overused already, meaning they basically cancel each other out - how can the results of this measure really be taken seriously by someone searching for information? My inclination towards speculative fiction has painted a picture of absolute horror in my head - in a few hundred years, what if all knowledge is reduced to what web users 'like'. A race as scary as Eloi or Morlocks from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine!
Back in the current, real world, it's actually a very exciting prospect and it may become one of those moments we look back on, saying 'do you remember what it was like before Facebook did search?' in the same way as, 'how did anyone find anything before Google?'. Online PR professionals, especially those like me who work in quite a unique way of integrating PR with SEO and Social Media, will be keeping their ears to the ground and will be trying to figure out the best practice for this emerging Facebook SEO.
Realistically, there is a way to go before a useful social search engine materialises. Black hat techniques and spamming will surely create a storm before the calm when people will eventually learn to 'like' in a way that is instinctively and sensitively aimed at producing credible search results. Nevertheless, I suggest any business who wants to drive traffic to its website should probably start speaking to its SEO, social media agency or webteam now about the future implications on search.
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