If you believe Wired magazine, Facebook is Google’s worst nightmare. From a July article entitled “Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network’s Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out“:
Today, the Google-Facebook rivalry isn’t just going strong, it has evolved into a full-blown battle over the future of the Internet—its structure, design, and utility. For the last decade or so, the Web has been defined by Google’s algorithms—rigorous and efficient equations that parse practically every byte of online activity to build a dispassionate atlas of the online world. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions a more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline. In Zuckerberg’s vision, users will query this “social graph” to find a doctor, the best camera, or someone to hire—rather than tapping the cold mathematics of a Google search. It is a complete rethinking of how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the center. In other words, right where Google is now.
The power of Facebook (and Twitter, but that’s another post) as a search engine is undeniable and is likely at the heart of how the company will find its way to the pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow. But until recently, we weren’t really sure what this new search might look like.
In this example, we picked a random HR vendor, Jobvite. Our trusted Facebook friend, Mason Wong, really likes Jobvite. He says, “I’m a customer and a fan of Jobvite, which is the primary recruiting system used where I currently work, and at my previous workplace as well.” He even added a video.
Had I been in the market for an applicant tracking solution, this would likely drive me to Jobvite for a test drive. I might even contact Mason for more information before making a purchasing decision. Either way, utilizing Facebook’s new search functionality to tap into my network, or just see what the community at large is saying, can and will affect the way people find information and make buying choices.
Alternatively, a quick trip to Google and typing in “Jobvite” fails to reveal Mason’s positive commentary. The usual suspects of blogs, corporate links and social media sites can be found instead. There’s nothing wrong with such sources, and most people will likely visit those in a complimentary fashion, no matter what, but our private networks and the wisdom of crowds will potentially have more and more weight over time when spending our hard-earned dollars.
Searching in the manner should also serve as a wake-up call that if you’re currently not implementing a social media strategy at your company, well, you’d better start. The ease at which social networking hounds can tweet, tag, share, stumble, digg, buzz and bookmark your content may be the difference between success and failure.
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August 13th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Facebook is making some great moves lately. Thank you for the example – made more sense than just talking about it. I think this is powerful. Cool post.
August 14th, 2009 at 5:55 am
If you are in the market for an ATS you are more likely to search for “applicant tracking solution” or ATS instead of the brand name jobvite, right? But yes i agree, real time search and recommendations from people you know and trust must give Google a headache. I’m sure they are “in the market” for an acquisition shortly!
August 14th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Yes absolutely word of mouth matters. I also think LinkedIn, as a professional community, will be powerful in this regard.
August 14th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Joel – Love the blog but I would just be careful to stay more laser focused on all things recruitment. Recruitment sites, employers, vendors, job board technology, whats disrupting the market etc. These search (like bing) stories are a little off.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Hi Joel, glad my Facebook status update became a useful example of the trend you’re highlighting. Just to affirm your point, my Facebook profile, although accessible to my network of trusted contacts within Facebook (including you), is ultimately not publicly visible, thus (theoretically) invisible to a Google or Bing search.
I do have a public blog at http://www.masonwong.com where I’ve occasionally mentioned Jobvite, but I don’t think my blog gets much traffic or linkage, so again, not much search engine visibility.
Interestingly, it was easier to share the video link of the local news story on Jobvite using Facebook than generating a post about it on my public blog, which helps illuminate some of Facebook’s value as a search platform.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Jeez if MZ does not embody the archetype accidental billionaire…….
This has to win some kind of award for stupid: “our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline”
No matter how I parse that thought, it still adds up to MZ considering the public at large to be roughly the equivalent of infants, because those are the only folks I can think of whose primary sources of information are the people nearest to them.
What hubris in the first place to think that we are a few Facebook updates away from reliable cause and effect in a social context- the complexity of which makes quantum physics look like Teen Jeopardy.
If I find out that my friends and family are into some product or service, I may go the other way just because……and that’s just the tip of the tip of the iceberg in terms of how people may react in unplanned ways when prompted by machine generated inferences of social conditions.