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After years of collecting photos and
personal data from its billion-plus members, Facebook Inc. Tuesday
unveiled a search tool that sifts through people's profiles -- and
pushes the social network deeper onto Google Inc.'s home turf.
The two companies are vying to become the primary gateway to the
Internet. Google has long served as a destination to find websites and
information; Facebook, to share gossip and photos with friends. But
those distinctions are increasingly blurring, and billions in
advertising dollars are at stake.
The social network said Tuesday it will enable members to conduct
complex queries related to their friends' profiles, such as 'tourist
attractions in France visited by my friends.'
In doing so, Facebook is attacking Google's core strength and its most
lucrative product -- search -- in a bid to convince people they might
not need to use Google to find information.
Google generates the majority of its $40 billion in annual revenue
world-wide from selling ads on its search engine. In the U.S., Google
was expected to make more than $13 billion of all search-ad revenue, or
75% of the entire market, according to research firm eMarketer Inc.
Google's repository of information remains unmatched. It said it has
indexed 30 trillion unique Web pages across 230 million sites. Last
year, Google changed it search engine to make it easier for people to
quickly get detailed information about people, places and real-world
things by displaying photos, facts and other 'direct answers' to search
queries at the top of the search-results page, rather than just spitting
out blue links.
Having witnessed Facebook's rise and anticipating its move into search,
Google built its own social-networking service, Google+, in 2011 to
obtain data about specific individuals by name, their personal interests
and the identities of their friends. It then integrated Google+ with
its Web-search service, so that people searching for a particular
website, local restaurant or real-world product will be alerted if any
of their Google+ contacts previously rated it positively or negatively.
A Google spokesman declined to comment.
But Facebook has a far larger social network and a sizable head-start
after spending years encouraging its members to add photos and all sorts
of personal information to their profiles, from basic data like
location, employer name and interests to more sensitive details such as
age, religion and romantic status.
Much of that data is now searchable using Facebook's new 'Graph Search'
feature after more than a year in development. Facebook began rolling it
out Tuesday as a test to a limited number of users. For Web searches
that Facebook can't deliver, the queries are served by Bing, the search
engine from Facebook partner Microsoft Corp.
Facebook's move into search could disrupt a number of other Internet
businesses, such as Yelp Inc. and LinkedIn Corp., which people use to
find local places and business connections, respectively.
If Facebook's new function proves a more trusted means for finding the
best merchandise, it could also chip away at Amazon.com Inc.'s dominance
in product search, which relies on a critical mass of reviews on its
site, rather than just those of friends or acquaintances matching
certain criteria.
Amazon and LinkedIn declined to comment. A spokesman for Yelp, whose
shares dropped more than 7% in the wake of Facebook's announcement,
wasn't immediately available for comment.
'I don't think one query will take down a whole business today, but
(many of) these businesses have to be worried because they are social in
nature,' said Brian Blau, a Gartner analyst.
Facebook didn't announce any business initiatives connected with the new
capability, which won't initially be available on mobile devices --
where a growing number of users are tapping into the service.
But the product will likely open moneymaking opportunities down the road
for Facebook in the form of search advertising, as the company works to
boost its revenue following its botched initial public offering last
May.
Facebook currently makes most of its revenue by selling small graphical, or display, ads on its site.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that Graph Search
could help Facebook make more money, but demurred on when the company
might capitalize on those opportunities.
'This could potentially be a business over time, but for now we've
really focused on building out this user experience,' Mr. Zuckerberg
said at the product's launch event at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif.,
headquarters, adding that the company has no specific targets for making
the search service more widely available.
Investors didn't appear to be surprised by the news, which followed days
of speculation online that Facebook would announce a search tool.
Facebook's shares, which have risen more than 75% since their September
nadir, fell 2.7% to close Tuesday at $30.10.
Facebook has introduced a slew of new products in recent months that
indicate it is going after new revenue. The product debuts include
stand-alone mobile texting applications; Facebook Exchange, a real-time
bidding ad exchange that allows advertisers to better target specific
groups; and Gifts, an online store. The company reports fourth-quarter
earnings on January 30.
Facebook has long had a basic search tool, but it was geared toward
rudimentary searches such as someone's name or a company's Facebook
page. With Graph Search, Facebook has taken its data and spliced it,
indexing it into numerous categories that make it easier for people to
discover results when they search using natural language terms.
For instance, if someone wants to finds photographs of their friends
tagged at Yellowstone National Park, he or she can type in 'photos of
friends at Yellowstone.' If they want to broaden that search, they can
alter a search query to 'photos of friends at national parks.' Like
Google, results begin to show up as a user types in their query.
At the event, Facebook also tried to blunt potential concerns about what
the search feature means for privacy. The social network, which has
been criticized in the past by consumer advocates for its handling of
user data, said it would only allow users to see information that is
already accessible to them.
In addition, before the search product is released to the entire social
network, users will see a notification on the top of their home page,
urging them to review what personal data is exposed to Graph Search.
'Privacy, as part of this product, is so deeply built in,' Mr. Zuckerberg said.
The Graph Search project began in earnest in mid-2011, when Lars
Rasmussen, Facebook's director of engineering for search, showed Mr.
Zuckerberg a demonstration of a basic prototype.
During the meeting, held in Mr. Zuckerberg's conference room, Mr.
Rasmussen said the search team could build an engine that could show
instant results, drawing from across the social network. Mr. Zuckerberg
liked the idea, but was skeptical.
'He said you'll never make that work, but if you can it will be
awesome,' said Mr. Rasmussen, who led the project with Tom Stocky,
Facebook's director of product management for search.
Facebook's search team, which numbers more than 50 people, pushed hard
in the final months on the project, with the team on
'lockdown'-essentially a crunch period-for 34 days during the winter,
Mr. Stocky said. During that time, Mr. Zuckerberg made frequent night
visits to the group.
On Tuesday, members of the search team packed into the back of the press
room to watch Mr. Zuckerberg unveil the search feature. Outside
Facebook's campus, a thumbs-up sign was temporarily covered, replaced
with a large blue sign of the Graph Search logo: three circles in a
triangle formation, connected by lines.
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Post By：2013/1/17 11:32:11
