The formula will be the subject of SEO detective work for some time, but searching a simple phrase like “Chinese restaurants” offers obvious indicators. Geographic proximity, “check-ins” (people who have logged in remotely with mobile devices), photographs and “likes” from friends are weighed against each other, the latter appearing to be the most influential variable.
Small businesses will be scrambling to secure a Facebook page to ensure their place in search results, if they haven’t already. And an army of SEO consultants will be offering tricks of the trade for climbing higher on results pages.
Market analysts will pore over Graph Search to find what products and services appeal to certain demographics. For example, if Crikey’s subscription department run a Facebook campaign offering a free DVD with membership, Graph Search can reveal what brands users prefer. Take a choice between Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire. If I search for “people who like crikey.com.au and who like Breaking Bad” the engine returns more than 1000 results/people; the same search for Boardwalk Empire returns more than 100. Crikey’s readership?—?at least those on Facebook?—?prefer their crime dramas to revolve around meth-cooking suburbanites than prohibition-era gangsters.
There are more than 40 ways to refine the search. For example:
Most effective are strings such as “what music does <insert name> listen to” and “photos of <insert person> from <insert year>”?—?that is, searches related to a person, a place, a recreation, a form of content and a time period. According to Graph Search, employees of The Age like to listen to Pearl Jam, Michael Jackson and Kings of Leon. Employees of The Australian like Radiohead, Bob Dylan and The Blazing Zoos.
“What is” style search strings, par for the course on Google, aren’t as effective. When I searched for “what is a duck” four responses appeared: “People who work at Duck Tape”, “People Who Like Duck Tales”, “People Who Like Donald Duck” and “My Friends Who Work at Duck Tape”. But below those responses, “web search” appears next to a grey icon of a magnifying glass and a globe. That took me to a search page (still within Facebook) with results on the left and related pages on the right:
This component of Graph Search is powered by Bing, Microsoft’s three-year-old search engine. It’s a big coup for Microsoft and could force a change in the Google-centric approach the search engine optimisation industry has taken for years.
Importantly, to maintain Facebook’s position as the world’s most effective data mining operation, Graph Search will improve the more information is fed into it and when behavioural patterns change to accommodate for it. If users know restaurant reviews are given valuable real estate they are more likely to take a photo of their lemon chicken or Pad Thai and share what they thought of it.
Presently, external sites collated by Graph Search/Bing load other browser tabs when clicked. Bet the house that Facebook will introduce something?—?a blue-coloured strip running across the top of the screen, perhaps?—?that will keep all sites boxed within its walls. Wherever you go, Facebook will be with you.
Just as certain as the uproar is the fact users will get used to it, then come to expect it. Just like Sergey said.
This article first appeared on Crikey.
