Facebook’s unveiling of its new Graph Search feature grabbed tech headlines on Tuesday, while the company’s share price stalled on the news that the big announcement wasn’t going to be a mobile phone. Of course, with Facebook officially entering the web search game, sort of, the news is still big enough for analysts to have to debate what it will mean for the company in the long run. Graph Search certainly has a huge potential for marketers, recruiters and the countless Facebook "lurkers" who will undoubtedly go wild with all of their new search capabilities.
But Graph Search, like many Facebook services, is going to struggle to maintain the fragile social contract it has established to honor the privacy of its users. During Tuesday’s announcement and media presentation, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was very careful to explain that user privacy was carefully considered during every phase of development for Graph Search. In essence, everyone’s searchable data will be limited to the other Facebook users who have granted them permission to search. So, for an individual user, Graph Search will only return results from the data of that user’s social network and presumably any relevant data from public profiles.
Whether Graph Search is ever able to make a meaningful dent into Google’s search dominance remains to be seen, but seems unlikely. Again, with the privacy restrictions inherent for Facebook, users will probably tire quickly of its limitations. Marketers and recruiters, however, will certainly be intrigued with the new functionality. And as paid search rolls out (oh, it’s coming) and users can pay for access to other people’s data, then we’ll get to see just how far Facebook is ready to take its journey into search. Even if you're not too excited about Graph Search, it's still much better than a new mobile phone platform - we're all stocked up on those.
But Graph Search, like many Facebook services, is going to struggle to maintain the fragile social contract it has established to honor the privacy of its users. During Tuesday’s announcement and media presentation, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was very careful to explain that user privacy was carefully considered during every phase of development for Graph Search. In essence, everyone’s searchable data will be limited to the other Facebook users who have granted them permission to search. So, for an individual user, Graph Search will only return results from the data of that user’s social network and presumably any relevant data from public profiles.
Whether Graph Search is ever able to make a meaningful dent into Google’s search dominance remains to be seen, but seems unlikely. Again, with the privacy restrictions inherent for Facebook, users will probably tire quickly of its limitations. Marketers and recruiters, however, will certainly be intrigued with the new functionality. And as paid search rolls out (oh, it’s coming) and users can pay for access to other people’s data, then we’ll get to see just how far Facebook is ready to take its journey into search. Even if you're not too excited about Graph Search, it's still much better than a new mobile phone platform - we're all stocked up on those.