When the Internet was introduced the phrase “The next big thing” was redefined.
The Next Big Thing turned into a chain reaction of speed, power, accessibility, rankings adorned with e-shopping carts and e-bank statements. The Internet redefined the word telephone and report card, and everything else in between. So how does something so big redefine itself? What next? Especially in the eyes of those who market on the web, this is a crucial question. Well remember when all the talk was about MySpace, and then all the talk migrated quickly to Facebook? Facebook has taken its social media network to the next level, meaning that the Internet’s “next big thing” is Facebook’s “new big thing.” The announcement has been made that, yes, Facebook will enter the realms of the Search Engine world. So yes, this also means that the largest social network on the web is being integrated and fine tuned with the “likes” of Internet users worldwide. Facebook is trying to optimize their “like” feature so that it can prime results and collect data due to your likes. Similar to when you’re shopping on a website and you click one item, then “other suggestions” show up that “you may like.
How does Facebook get to snoop around and figure out what we like? Integration. Facebook is partnering up with around 30 sites so that’s a minefield of information organization alone. For example, say you’re searching something about your favorite futbol player during the World Cup 2010 and you “like” it on the FIFA site, if FIFA is linked into Facebook’s integration system then you, the fan, will receive updates on your Facebook news feed about your favorite player. This bridge you created will leave a personal imprint on the open graph system Facebook is using to collect and organize data. The same way Facebook is leaked into other websites the involvement of Facebook user and interest is collected, organized, and used for marketing strategies. Clever right? So then what happens to Google and SEO? Well it does not become obsolete, but they are on different ends of the spectrum in some degrees. Search Engine Optimization concentrates on building links while Facebook is concentrating on evolving the “like” into the same level of the link. Though that may seem like a grand tongue twister the goal is to have websites rank successfully using both “likes” and “links” in the near future. SEO linking now has a cousin that if made into a team, can hopefully power up the marketing of websites all over.
