Follow enough social media and search engine companies and you’ll start to feel that anytime someone in Silicon Valley sneezes, there’s a press conference describing the event. And it’s on LiveStream. And 500 people are liveblogging it.
And 400 people like it before your browser tab loads that page. And another 400 Facebook Like it in between nose wipes. And some of us sit up late at night dissecting the event in great detail while another 400 Like the replay.
Yesterday was a little different. Yesterday, Facebook & Bing announced that Bing SERPs will become more personalized. So, if you’re looking on Bing yeah, both of you for directions for the local bar down the street and you’re already logged into Facebook, you’ll see how many of your friends already like the bar. Or if there’s an Italian t-shirt shop in a Chicago neighborhood you’re reading up on, you can see which one of your friends have “Liked it.” The results will appear much like how “Social Circle” results can show up at the bottom of your personalized Google Results.
The good news is that you’re going to learn publicly what you and your friends are willing to share – assuming your friends aren’t like my friends and Like most of the things to help out the friends in their group who are helping out local businesses because they “know social media.”
And there isn’t bad news, but Facebook Likes are similar to “priority” work at an agency: Everything’s a priority!
And when everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority.
Facebook might get a flicker of extra traffic from Bing. Bing might see a bounce of engagement as a result of the addition. And if Google likes it, they’ll jump into the fray and take Bing’s lunch money. But the one thing this move isn’t is a game-changer. It’s not even that cool.
1) Those classic Cornell heat maps show that nobody looks that far down the page
2) If I really want to know what my friends have to say about a place I’m searching, I’m putting it on Facebook (might even use the share button). If I want to know what experts say about a place, I’ll use a search engine.
3) I think Social Media deities forget that many of us got into this to get away from high school / college popularity crap. We’re really not in the mood to relive it.
I’m not going to start optimizing for Facebook like sharing on Bing SERPs. I’m going to avoid all “experts” who’ll write an e-book about this merger. And I don’t think Mountain View is going to have trouble sleeping tonight.
Unless I’ve completely missed something.
What do you think about this uber-hyped Facebook / Bing connection?
But now I’m hoping this review gets 400 Likes.
     | do some of that social network stuff. |
