Google’s Real Time Search Now Shows Facebook Pages Status
February 25, 2010, 1:33 pm
While everyone is concerned about just how Google will eventually take over the world and implant chips in everyone so they can search for your real time position at any time in real time for real information (do you get the sarcasm here?) there is one area where Google is not going to do as well as the competition (read: bing). That is real time search results for Facebook.
Google has announced that Facebook Pages status updates have started to be included in real time search results. This is added to their addition of Twitter and MySpace info to search results as well. Where Google is not going to be effective, though, is Facebook and Venture Beat’s Digital Beat tells us why
The key thing to remember, however, is that Google has much more limited access to Facebook’s real-time data than its competitor, Bing. Microsoft has deeper ties to the social network, as an investor in Facebook and as a search provider for the site. Microsoft has the ability to index public status updates, while Google’s access is limited to updates from Pages, which are vehicles for marketing rather than personal content.
While this may be seen as a disadvantage by some, I don’t necessarily see it that way. I go to a search engine to get information about different subjects of interest, products, business data and general entertainment. Honestly, I don’t want to see personal Facebook updates in any search engine. It’s just creepy. I think that updates from Facebook Pages, however, can be of help and it doesn’t have any creepiness factor to it. It’s marketing information for the most part so that can only get as weird as everyday marketing can get. No harm there.
Now, I know that this is just my opinion so it would be good to hear from others. Considering all the flak that Facebook has received about privacy should personal updates be included in search results for bing since many are likely still clueless about just how much of their information is public? Do you want to see that information?
















