The search giant Google is recognising a new trend on the Internet, namely that people tend to ask their online friends for advice rather than look to a search engine. For the first time according to comScore, people spent more time on Facebook than on Google sites.
The problem for Google is that fundamentally what really matters to advertisers is how many people see their ads, wherever people gather, that is where the money is going to be.
Read here for the New York Times article
For example, they turn to their Facebook friends and ask questions such as ‘Can you recommend a good baby sitter” or “I fancy going to a new restaurant – any recommendations?”.
You can see how difficult this kind of question can be for a search engine because it involves a value judgement and local knowledge.
This is an interesting case study of how people change the way they use technology and suddenly the market leader has to change the way they do things – can they do that or is the culture too ingrained to be able to change? Time will tell.
So is this the new trend? Will Facebook become the new search engine for complex questions?
