Bing Adds Facebook 'Friend Effect' With Collective IQ To Search

[engine]

Bing Adds Facebook 'Friend Effect' With Collective IQ To Search [bing.com]

Today, Bing is bringing the collective IQ of the Web together with the opinions of the people you trust most, to bring the “Friend Effect” to search. Starting today, you can receive personalized search results based on the opinions of your friends by simply signing into Facebook. New features make it easier to see what your Facebook friends “like” across the Web, incorporate the collective know-how of the Web into your search results, and begin adding a more conversational aspect to your searches. Decisions can now be made with more than facts, now the opinions of your trusted friends and the collective wisdom of the Web.

You can quickly see what your friends like and are sharing. Find and connect with the right friends faster. Pick the brains of friends of who live where you’re traveling and share shopping lists with your own team of retail gurus. And, return the favor to your friends by liking more things on the Web. With one click you can let your network know that you like a brand, an article, a celebrity or even a place. Because we know the best decisions are not just fueled by facts, they require the opinions and recommendations of your friends.

There's also a new Bing toolbar with a 'like' button.

[aristotle]

So Joe Publisher - Your website gets 1000 Likes from people of power and influence, and your competitor gets 8000 Likes from teens, druggies, and lowlifes.

And since my websites don't have any Like buttons, they will be "left behind".

ROFL

[JoePublisher]

It seems you missed the point. As I said, I did not expect to 'convert' anyone to my point of view ... good luck with what you are doing (genuinely) even with your sarcasm.

A throw away line? Really? I gave you real world data and experience that people in top boardrooms are discussing right now, and what is your response? Do you come back with real world data and experience to help me understand where I might be going wrong? I am totally open to doing it differently if you can point me in the right direction (honestly).

FYI: After I put the facebook button on my site I was shocked to see some pages had already been 'liked' several hundred times, by those wanting to cut and paste the page url manually in to their feeds. This made me realise I was ignoring an audience that wanted to be engaged with.

[edited by: JoePublisher at 2:43 pm (utc) on May 18, 2011]

[JoePublisher]

post redacted ...

no point in keeping it here, wrong audience, do what you want ... I think this is going to be my last contribution here as this does not seem to be the place for serious issues to be aired or discussed in a mature way by professionals.

Google Bad

Facebook Bad

you win ....

[edited by: JoePublisher at 2:48 pm (utc) on May 18, 2011]

[Panthro]

Some great posts here already. I hope all those with something to say go ahead and write it as there's a lot to learn from reading differing opinions.

I really enjoyed the PR from Bing, even though it kept freezing my browser for some reason. Like some have already said, this is very big and will be interesting to see what effect it has on Bing's popularity and how Google will respond.

[ThatsBoBo]

Question: I have NO "like" buttons on any of my pages. HOWEVER, some of my visitors do copy and paste my URL onto their "walls", etc. on Facebook and their friends click the links and visit the page.

Do these count as "likes" or must I add "like" buttons to my site to take advantage of this new Bing "friend effect"?

Also, is this based only on the above or will Bing actually add "like" buttons next to the SERP listings on their results?

TY

[TimmyMagic]

Is this live? Because I don't see any of this on Bing.com and I'm logged into Facebook.

[J_RaD]

Timmy, i just checked this myself... you'll have to go to bing.com look at the lower left hand and click the "try social search" then you'll have to make the connection.

otherwise, its off.

off by default, good. guess they learned that mistake from goog

[celgins]

A lot of folks in this forum are thinking about this with only a webmaster's mentality. And I can almost guarantee you that the masses don't think like webmasters.

Microsoft is simply following a social trend that has been dominating the web for several years now. There are millions of users who want to know which movies their friends think are cool. They want to know which restaurants have good ratings, and whether or not their sister, cousin, or mom would eat there. They may also be interested in news events, videos, music and articles their friends are exploring.

I'm guessing most engineers and webmaster/developer/SEO-types could care less, but webmaster/developer/SEO-types don't dominate the web--users do. And it's the user who seeks to share, discover and socialize, and Microsoft is taking a stab at making its SERPS more social.

There is a reason why sites like Urbanspoon, Yelp and TripAdvisor have become so popular. Some people, instead of making a unilateral decision, would rather get tips, pointers and perspective from others. It's all driven by a desire to be less wasteful with their money, to explore best practices, and to discover the exciting and unknown. Now, more than ever, it is much easier to do this (through social networking, mobile applications, etc.) and Microsoft would be nuts to ignore that audience.

Will it work? Who knows, but webmasters won't make that decision--users will.

[Shatner]

I don't think this is good for the web, or for quality content, or for humanity in general.

But I don't understand the hard-headed, closed off, head-in the sand, unbending mentality of so many here proudly trumpeting that they refuse to integrate Facebook with their sites.

That's just not logical. Whether you like it or not, the web is always changing. You either change with it or die. It's not about what you like.

[jonathanleger]

Microsoft is simply following a social trend that has been dominating the web for several years now. There are millions of users who want to know which movies their friends think are cool. They want to know which restaurants have good ratings, and whether or not their sister, cousin, or mom would eat there. They may also be interested in news events, videos, music and articles their friends are exploring.

Sure, but if people are interested in their mom/sister/friend/dog's opinion on the latest movie/song/book/gadget, they'll ask them -- either on the phone or via email or via Facebook or other social site.

If I want an individual's opinion on something, I'll get it from them, and THEN go to the web to research ADDITIONAL information. I don't want that clouded by FB user's opinions, even if I know and am linked to those users in some way.

[koan]

many here proudly trumpeting that they refuse to integrate Facebook with their sites.

I don't use Facebook myself (personal preference and privacy issues), but I'm happy to let people click LIKE on my pages and bring more traffic, especially if all you need is to copy paste a few ligns of code, and especially if that traffic decreases my reliance from Google.

[J_RaD]

There is a reason why sites like Urbanspoon, Yelp and TripAdvisor have become so popular. Some people, instead of making a unilateral decision, would rather get tips, pointers and perspective from others

there are places for it.....and places that aren't for it, and we already have places for it.

I don't see how bing can just start tanking sites just because they aren't facebook friendly, they can't just blindly assume EVERYONE uses facebook because for the simple fact that THEY DON'T!

So lets not mash the panic button until someone sees SERPs going crazy, cause im seeing ZERO.

I don't use Facebook myself (personal preference and privacy issues), but I'm happy to let people click LIKE on my pages and bring more traffic, especially if all you need is to copy paste a few ligns of code, and especially if that traffic decreases my reliance from Google.

me either, then one day i decided to test out making a page for my site and getting "social" i created the page then all of the sudden FB started asking me if i wanted to be friends with all these people i really knew....uh how? never been there, never cruised any social sites....then i realized it was crawling my flipping outlook contact list!

DIRTY SONS OF #)*$&@@! next time I do anything on FB i'll be in a dang virtual machine!

>:(

[celgins]

If I want an individual's opinion on something, I'll get it from them, and THEN go to the web to research ADDITIONAL information. I don't want that clouded by FB user's opinions, even if I know and am linked to those users in some way.

Yes--picking up the phone and calling someone is "old school," and there's nothing wrong with that. But what if a person wants more than just the opinion of an individual on the other end of the phone? Are 100 thumbs up better than one? Maybe, and some folks seek that approval before spending their hard-earned cash, or before trying out a new recipe.

As I've noted (along with others) this has nothing to do with what webmasters and SEOs feel about cluttered, personalized SERPS. It's about satisfying the wants of the growing user-base, and that user-base is--for the moment--Facebook and Twitter crazy.

There was a time when sending a written letter was meaningful. Then came the telephone; then came email; and then came IM/texting/mobile apps. The latter allows you almost unlimited access to a wealth of information, and people want information without waiting and often, without having to think too much.

[Reno]

What was of most interest to me (as I watched the Bing Video on SERoundtable link) was the Facebook 'Like' button on the new Bing bar!

To me, this is Bing finding something "sexy" to put on the bar that they hope will have the same pizzazz as Google's PageRank. It's a gimmick, but then again, so was PR and yet it was one of Google's iconic concepts, whether it meant anything meaningful or not. "Like" is like that, and whether we like it or not, they're going to run with it. Can't imagine though that it actually lifts up the overall quality level of content on the web ~ the opposite may be true, and in fact, I'd spell it:

l-o-w-e-s-t c-o-m-m-o-n d-e-n-o-m-i-n-a-t-o-r

..........................