How has Bing’s inclusion of Facebook ‘liked results’ affect the way we search? Edinburgh-based SEO experts QueryClick takes a closer look.
True to form, the world of social media shows little sign of slowing down in terms of infiltrating every aspect of our lives; search engines being no exception.
While Google laid bare plans to include relevant content from social media sources such as YouTube, Flickr and Twitter, Microsoft’s own search engine – Bing – has been preparing its move into the realm of social search with a much touted tie with Facebook.
Now Facebook “liked results” will become integrated with everyday Bing searches which Bing’s development team described as “part of a longer journey” into an improved cohesion between search and the social sphere.
“QueryClick are not surprised to see Bing announce a tie with Facebook in a bid to keep shoulder to shoulder with Google following the launch of the latter’s real time, social media search results some 18 months ago.
“The ability to ‘like’ search results and see those that your friends have ‘liked’ is another step closer to a much more personalised search experience that pulls in the activities and opinions of an individual’s social circle.
“It’s also highly likely that personalised search will lead to a much greater emphasis on personalised advertising which has already been seen on Facebook.”
The introduction of the ‘Bing Bar’ – a simple tool bar function – will also serve to blur the line between search engine and social media platform even further.
Here, users can access their Facebook news feed, friend requests and notifications directly from the search engine.
Furthermore, the Bing Bar is thought to collate data over time to create a more bespoke and personalised search experience; another feature that is likely to become more and more familiar across a number of search engines in the coming year.
What long term effect the inclusion of social media content in search results will have on search engine optimisation is yet to be established.
Source: http://uk.queryclick.com/