Quick Think of a Search Engine… What’s the First One That Comes to Mind?
Google… That’s the first site to pop into mind when I think of a search engine. With over 900,000,000 unique monthly visitors, I am going to assume that it’s probably one of the first search engines that most people think of. Even as I am typing this, I am currently using the Google search toolbar, to find supporting documents to back up my opinions.
Can it Be Beat?
Natural search engines, such as Google or Yahoo for example, are meant to match key words from the original search with relevant sites that may have one of those words in it. Google has managed to dominate the web, maintaining a strong presence and almost completely knocking out competitors such as Yahoo with the diverse array of tools that it offers. Can it ever be beat?
Graph Search
Bing launched by Microsoft back in 2009 has been attempting to compete with Google, and have had some success through business deals, such as a standing partnership with Facebook. Recently there has been talk concerning a new innovative way of searching the web through Facebook, called Graph Search. Basically Facebook and Bing will be partnering to offer a unified search experience, allowing people to search outside of Facebook, but still receive a mix of social context within their Bing web results. For example, say you meet someone at a party and want to connect with them on Facebook but forgot to get their information. You could type in “people named Chris who are friends of Lars and went to Stanford.” Now that seems slightly intense!
Will this type of search engine give Bing the edge it has been ‘searching’ for? Although creative, I don’t see much potential in this idea. Google seems to be quick at the draw, when it comes to innovative ideas, and considering it has the resources, a new tool won’t be too far behind. Another reason I don’t see this excelling is based on the fact of it appearing more or less to be a social search, making me think only of Facebook instead of a useful/legitimate search engine called Bing.
But that’s just my opinion… What do you the bloggers think!?
Melissa Cantin
Chasing such a dominant market leader is something that has always been challenging for thise trying to catch up. I see this as a desperate foray. i also do not see the value in ithe experience. We have a proven thing in Google search,. What will make us try this new approach?
Hi there,
I would agree with your point. I personally don;t think that Facebook can become such a “massive” search engine like Google simply because it is more personal, while Google is not. What I mean is that if you want to find something on Facebook it would be staff related to you personally (photos of friends etc.) but we can do that already typing it in the “search” bar, so what difference does the new thing brings?
Yuliya R.
The power of google is amazing, 900 000 000 unique monthly visitors is outstanding. It’s such a powerful brand embedded in everyones mind, looking at the first link from your post i don’t even recognise some of the search engines mentioned such as ‘MyWebSearch’, ‘Infospace’ or ‘Goodsearch’. I was surprised to find search engines i do not even recognise in the top 15 most popular search engines 2013 list.
Graph search concerns me because there must be ethical issues concerning data protection and privacy surrounding it. Facebook and Bing, 2 powerful brands, working together on this innovative search venture seems like a good idea to gain power and get users to try out the search tool.
I for one, completely agree with you! Google has taken over the search engine world by a storm. They are constantly coming up with new ways to engage visitors and always manage to trump other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing. To be quite honest, I haven’t used Yahoo since I was about twelve and I’ve never once used Bing. The catch phrase “Google it” has become a norm and adopted by millions of people. With this being said, in order for the Facebook-Bing partnership to really work is to bring something completely new and legitimate to the table. To me, it has only come up with a new way of further creeping people online rather than an improvement in the manner individuals do research.
Susan Caracciolo
Definitely need to agree with the above post, in that graph search can really easily rub people the wrong way in terms of privacy. One of the biggest responses that many people must have seen is this: http://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com/
Honestly, graph search to me just seems gimmicky. Google does an amazing job of gathering and combining massive amounts of information that make it work so flawlessly. I’m sure if Google and Facebook weren’t direct competitors in the social networking field, and Google was integrated into Facebook search (or vice versa), you’d be able to do it instantaneously, without graphs.
The only benefit I can see this taking is that it is more visual, which is a huge benefit to mobile/touch devices – a field Microsoft has been really pushing with Windows 8/Surface, especially with Smartglass connecting Xbox devices and non-windows phones. It will be interesting to see how successful this ends up being.
Personally, I have always thought of Google when thinking of a search engine; I mean, it even became a verb: “You can google it.” However, I believe that Bing is getting itself out there more nowadays. Last year I would have thought “What is this Bing you speak of?” But lately I’ve been hearing about it more and seeing it more often. Partnering with Facebook is just one thing that it’s trying to get in the public’s eye with. I have also noticed Microsoft’s Bing being used as a product placement in more movies and tv shows lately, such as the new Jame Bond (Skyfall) and in the Amazing Spiderman (2012). It is now being used for 30% of US searches and it has the potential to increase.I decided to check Bing out because of its product placements and now actually prefer it over Google. It is now my home page! What I like most about it, is that there is a new breathtaking background picture every day and gives you the top headline news and random fun facts each day as well.
Emanuel Vasilescu (Group 10)
I can barely remember the days when Yahoo dominated and Google kept trying to snag a piece of the pie. It seems like an eternity ago, but quite frankly I can’t pinpoint when the switch took over from Yahoo to Google. All I can remember is that in the beginning when Yahoo was still the favorite, Google seemed a little less use friendly to me, but I was only a kid in elementary school. After that Google just took charge and I do not recall the last time I used a different search engine. It is extremely user friendly, well organized, very easy to customize it to your liking and a pretty good search engine based on relevancy. On top of all of that there is also Gmail, Google Docs and a ton more applications you can use through Google. One thing they are missing or at least I do not know of is a good sports section with fantasy leagues. Enough about Google, and on to the Bing and Facebook partnership. I’m sure there will be a lot of hype about their “search engine” launch, and they might do well in the beginning, but I definitely do not believe it will last. I don’t see people leaving Google to try and join this new Bing search engine, simply because Google is just so accessible, easy to use, and drilled into our minds!
Sounds really interesting the parenting between Facebook and Bing, because as you mentioned, it would be really helpful in finding new people with that social media feature. But other than that I would prefer Google, because it works for me. I did a “test” and put my research with the same words in 3 different search engines: Google, Bing and Yahoo; and the most accurate result was the Google one.
I have to add that Google is really simple to use and is very user friendly, because imagine that you’re an old man that barely uses the computer to search things, so when you have to look up for something in the web all you have to do in Google is type your desired search in the only white bar where you can type, and press Enter or the search button. Also, in some cases the results appear while you’re typing. Too many colors, movement, text and related stuff in a search engine page, may be confusing and intimidating for a person who is not that familiar with computers, so Google tries to make it very simple.
I would like to see the results and the response for that parenting that Bing is willing to make, but I think Bing and the other search engines would have a hard time trying to beat Google.
Hello there,
I think it can interesting to adopt another point of view. We all know the huge success of Google and sometimes you are even saying it is the famoust one in the world. I just would like to underline that Google is mainly famous in the western countries, i mean that Google in China for example has only 5% of the market share when we are looking at the search engine. It exists a search engigne called Baidu which represents ~75% of the chinese research on the web.
Google is powerfull it’s true, but it has its pros and cons. How many times did we heard : if it is not on the first page of Google, it doesn’t exist. That statement can be crucial for companies, it is not that easy to be on the 1st page. Appearing in the first page of Google is a totally new market; some computer engineers are expert in that domain. Is it that safe when a company like Google got such a power ? I am not sure…
Gabriel B.
I agree with your opinion on the probability of this new Facebook-Bing search engine overcoming the dominance of Google. I think at this point Google has become such a necessity in internet usage and our lives in general that it is almost impossible to be replaced. Most people don’t ever even feel the need to try out different search engines besides Google because they know Google will provide the most extensive and accurate results. This fact makes it hard for others to even remotely compete with Google. I think that although it is one of the most creative and innovative ways of competing with Google by combining a search engine with the social media aspect of Facebook, I don’t see it as a replacement for Google. Google has so many more options and capabilities than just being used to connect with people you know. That idea just seems like a more in-depth Facebook search rather than a replacement for a search engine that you would use to look up news, historical facts, background information for a research topic, etc. I think this “Graph Search” only covers a specific niche of the market and thus it isn’t enough to gain an advantage over Google. I also don’t see this idea being successful in the long run. I don’t believe it provides enough value or advantage in using it other than the occasional time to make it worthwhile for consumers to use it as opposed to a regular Facebook search.
Brittany Sloan
Bing may not be able to compete with Google directly, however I do see this as being a positive partnership between Bing and Facebook. I don’t think that people will be using Graph Search to research articles for projects or for their daily news, but they will be using it for the purpose of tracking people and staying up to date in their community.
Like all Facebook features and changes, it will be met with resistance, but eventually adopted. I see this becoming a widely used feature as it allows people to easily find friends and follow what other people are doing. It also creates an easy way for people to find others who have similar interest and allows them to create their own communities.