3 ms·
When you can tap your entire social graph for answers to your queries, sites like Facebook have the ability to push aside search engines like Google as the firs
by philk 16y ago
When you can tap your entire social graph for answers to your queries, sites like Facebook have the ability to push aside search engines like Google as the first site that springs to mind when people think about surfing the WWW to find information, connect to other people, communicate with friends, and so on.
Am I somehow connecting to the wrong Facebook or something? Because whenever I log in all I get is dull status updates from people I somewhat know.
- pavs 16y agoThe problem is you are relying on TechCrunch for tech punditry. Techcrunch is one of those tech blogs that has very little knowledge about technology.
- brown9-2 16y agoCan you name some "tech pundits" that actually do have "knowledge" or at least make useful and accurate predictions? Seems to me like it's the kind of field where if you were good at it, you'd be doing something else with those skills...
- pavs 16y agoYes sure. Arstechnica, Engadget. Hell, even gizmodo does a better job. Have you never heard of tech journalist with tech backgrounds? Or finance journalist with economics background? I don't think a single TC bloggers have any tech background and they continue to spew out rubbish day in and day out.
- robryan 16y agoI think it's more they feel the need to constantly be searching and suggesting what the next big thing could be rather than evaluating things on their merits.
- jsz0 16y agoAt the risk of stating the obvious the Facebook you login into is entirely different than everyone else. It really depends on who your friends are. It probably also depends on how much satisfaction you get out of being a voyeur. That's a big part of FB's success.
- ugh 16y agoI understand why Facebook is useful and fun for many, I don’t understand how it could replace a search engine. Facebook can certainly shoulder some traditional search engine tasks – looking for people, say, or asking questions you know your friends can answer – but that is far from the majority of things I use a search engine for. Just looking at my search history, how can Facebook tell me how many calories 100g pasta with tomato sauce have? How can Facebook tell me how VAT and inflation are connected? Does Facebook know what a clathrate compound is? Is Facebook supposed to know when Civ 5 for the Mac is coming out?
- NZ_Matt 16y agoIt's very possible that Facebook could integrate with Bing.
- ugh 16y agoBing is a search engine. – edit: Just for kicks I only now tried all searches I mentioned above and it seems to me like Facebook is already integrating with Bing in some way. I searched for “100g pasta calories” and three Bing results showed up.
- NZ_Matt 16y agoThat is neat. I guess they don't want to promote this feature too much while it is in their best interests to keep everyone on Facebook. It'd be interesting to see what impact this would have on Bings market share if this feature was made obvious and promoted.
- citizenkeys 16y agoFacebook already integrates with Bing. And Microsoft is a substantial shareholder in Facebook.
- thwarted 16y agoIt's definitely not going to replace a search engine when I'm told that I'm posting and commenting on too much stuff I find on the internet (wide variety, but some of it could answer someone's question like the ones you've suggested) and that my feed is clogging up people's screens. People, at least my connections, are not interested in using facebook for anything other than status updates.
- nostrademons 16y agoFor many people, the status updates from people they know are what they care about, and all those little factoids on the web are pretty much irrelevant. If I remember my high school/college days correctly, most people care far more about their social relationships than technology or knowledge.