Zuckerberg On Facebook Search Engine: "At some point we'll do it"

[engine]

Mark Zuckerberg is on stage at Disrupt talking about the potential for Facebook to get serious about creating a search engine, saying “we’re basically doing 1 billion queries a day and we’re not even trying.” He followed up noting “Facebook is pretty uniquely positioned to answer the questions people have. At some point we’ll do it. We have a team working on it.”

He explained that users really do look to the social network to answer questions, such as where to eat sushi. This is what people want out of search, not a pile of results. “Search engines are really evolving to give you a set of answers, ‘I have a specific question, answer this question for me.’”Zuckerberg On Facebook Search Engine: "At some point we'll do it" [techcrunch.com]

[Digmen1]

Myspace only died because people started using Facebook as it was better and all of their freinds were on it.

Facebook will be around fro a long time imho, as long as they can afford to pay for their servers.

What does Mark means when he talks about search?

People search for places to shop and they search for information or how to do things.

[sundaridevi]

They NEED to do it, and do it SOON! Somebody needs to put up competition to Google, who has made a mess of a once decent search product and is killing small businesses in droves.

Amen.

This is most likely the Page/Brin absolute worst nightmare scenario, and why they have been tearing their search engine apart to make it 'unique'. Google got to where they are by providing the backend search results for the number 1 web destination (Yahoo). So if the number one web destination today (facebook) decides to just pay even lip service to web search, Google will start to lose share. If they actually pursue dominance in Search, Google will lose share faster (e.g. Toolbar, search facebook or web select menu on the current FB search box). All that is extremely easy with the current Bing back end. And Bing already integrates FB results, so it is a win win situation if they push people out to Bing rather than letting them use the Google search box. Maybe they could even get a revenue share of FB generated search PPC. This seems to be a no-brainer, so I wonder what is stopping them from doing it?

Facebook also has the opportunity to provide a completely unique set of search results by providing a search of FB pages with the possibility of ranking by popularity. Very large opportunities here.

FB is a public company that's told a bad story so far, so they'll have to pursue revenue generating features a great deal more than they have in the past, at the expense of pie in the sky or non-core business type features (e.g. the recent announcement that there will not be a facebook mobile phone)

[Digmen1]

I just don't see how a Facebook search engine would work.

People go to Facebook to engage with their friends etc.

They just need to find ways to put more ads on the site. Eg stop the ad blockers. Or somehow start charging for some services.

And somehow drop the bid prices.

Facebook is now ahead of Google in world-wide Alexa traffic. No 1.

[Innovate]

They NEED to do it, and do it SOON! Somebody needs to put up competition to Google, who has made a mess of a once decent search product and is killing small businesses in droves.

I tell people to use DuckDuckGo. No one listens. Maybe it's the domain name?

Anyway, I'd never use a FB search engine. Zeus is correct. Their business style "all your info is belong to us" is pretty similar to G.

[Digmen1]

If Bing can't make a good go of it how can a site with a stupid name such as DuckDuckGo ?

[Innovate]

I don't care if it's called EatMyShoes, it's a darn good search engine and I appreciate the privacy policy.

[Digmen1]

The average person would not careless about a search engine's privacy policy.

They want to use a search engine that gives them the information they want and one that is well known.

[Innovate]

The average person would not careless about a search engine's privacy policy.

I was going to refute this, but then I realized you are correct. I don't hang around average people.

However search engines become well known because they give people the information they want. They don't become well known because they are well known. Everyone has to start somewhere.

I remember when everyone used Yahoo and they used to have it where you could also search Google after you searched with them. Then you could search Google, and get back to Yahoo from there. After awhile you started to realize that Google had the better results, so why even bother with Yahoo. That's how I heard about Google- from using Yahoo. Does anyone else remember this?

Anyway, my mentioning DuckDuckGo was not about them taking on Google. It was about mentioning a site that I think people should use for their searches.

I am starting to see a small (and relatively insignificant) backlash against FB for their privacy practices so while the under 18 crowd might use it for a search engine, I am not convinced it would be well received.

[Leosghost]

Back in the days of Altavista..the average person used it, massively "a search engine that gave them the information they want and one that was well known"....Google was considered, by the average person, to be a stupid name ..then webmasters started telling the average people about it..because it was better than, and different from the rest..

G did not spring forth by parthenogenesis from the forehead of Larry or Sergey..:)

[Digmen1]

Yes back in the days I used Alta Vista as it was well known.

Then I read some PC magazines and they said that Google was a better search engine. So I tired it and have been on it every since.

Google sounds a silly name, but it is a very good name as it is easy to say and easy to spell and easy to type.

Eg you can "Google it"
Try saying you can DuckDuckGo it !
or look fro it on DuckDuckGo

[Leosghost]

Yes back in the days I used Alta Vista as it was well known.

Then I read some PC magazines and they said that Google was a better search engine. So I tired it and have been on it every since.

Google sounds a silly name, but it is a very good name as it is easy to say and easy to spell and easy to type.

Eg you can "Google it"
Try saying you can DuckDuckGo it !
or look fro it on DuckDuckGo

Apparently it is not typing DuckDuckGo which gives you trouble :)

The rest of us have no trouble typing or saying DuckDuckGo either..:)

Google is actually quite hard for most non English speakers to understand how to spell and say initially , as the oo part is usually encountered in words like "book" and "look" which do not have the oo as in Boo sound..

[sundaridevi]

Facebook toolbar would be an Earthquake in Googleland