Blog

Facebook’s New Search Function

Whether or not Facebook’s new search function is successful, depends on how well users respond to the perceived benefits of the feature versus its ability to put people off by its potential creepiness factor. As soon as Facebook announced the new search tool, users everywhere were quick to point out the potential it had to reveal old and embarrassing posts making Facebook stalking that much easier. From a Facebook user’s point of view, will the usefulness of this feature really outweigh its potential for embarrassment?

 

With that being said, the new search feature sets Facebook up to unseat Google+ for good. However, we think it’s questionable whether Facebook’s new feature will be useful enough to truly detract people away from using a platform as reliable as Google.

 

The issue with this is that it’s already fairly straightforward to search for what you need on Facebook, and it remains to be seen whether it will take less time for Facebook’s new search algorithm to predict your intentions rather than the user just clicking on the navigation tools already available.

 

It’s also possible Facebook’s new search feature will end up copying Twitter’s hashtag feature as it is obvious by now that Facebook’s own version of the hashtag functionality proved largely to be pointless. The reason Twitter’s search function works so well is because its users are actively looking to voice their opinion on trending topics and they are looking for newsworthy content from other users who are perceived to be trustworthy and authoritative on those topics.

 

Facebook’s search will be limited to your Facebook friends and the Pages you’ve liked and people are more likely to trust content from their peers over a random company. While it is true that people view content from their personal networks as more trustworthy, the fact remains that social media is still only one research tool used by consumers before they commit to purchase. It will be worth seeing what kind of impact the new Facebook search makes next year, and if it is really capable of encroaching on Google’s territory in 2015.

 

Facebook is making many changes for the coming year, some good and some, well, not so good. Knowing which ones are which and how they affect you is very important and that is where a good social media management firm comes into play. We can help you figure out what’s what, and what will work best for your small business.

 

 

Post A Comment

twenty + fourteen =