Just been reading an excellent blog post over at SEOMoz about the 4 biggest threats that Google faces. Fascinating stuff. To summarise, the article reckons it could be one of the following:
- An existing search competitor wins back it’s share
- A startup becomes the new golden child of search
- Web search fractures into verticals
- Traditional Web Search is Replaced by a More Compelling Information Retrieval Model
But what about Facebook?
If I were Google I’d be more concerned about the sustained and continuing growth of Facebook and the tightening grip it is having on people’s lives.
Regular Facebook users can completely immerse themselves in the Facebook world for hours on end (even if this time can consist of cyberstalking, running farms or playing at being a Mafia boss) and it strikes me that if Facebook can develop a useful, reliable method of search from within that extends outwith it’s own network then they’ll be well on their way to becoming a dominant force in search and a real challenger to Google.
Facebook already comes ready-rolled with a search box. Imagine the “convenience” for it’s users if this search box was their gateway to information on anything they want, rather than just a tool that gets used to track down friends?
There’s also several concerns over privacy relating to Facebook but imagine how focused search results could be served if they were not only based on what was out there but on every single piece of data that you’ve added over the years to your Facebook account.
Scary, or simply progress?