Facebook, the social media giant, is now working together with Bing, Microsoft’s not-quite-as-popular-as-Google search engine. The biggest affect so far is that now “like” and profile data from Facebook can be searched on Bing. In an effort to improve the social media aspect of the search engine (something that may give Bing an edge over Google, or at least Yahoo!), Bing now has added features that fit searches to your tastes, which theoretically means you’re going to find what you want more of the time. Bing’s Senior VP Online Audience Business Yusuf Mehdi said that Bing is also working on improving people search, which make up about 4% of searches. Better people search means that finding friends should be easier, because now Bing will take your user data into account of the search.
Here’s the big question though: Where is Google in all of this? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even went as far as to call Bing the underdog of search engines (which may not entirely be untrue). It seems as if Bing and Facebook are trying to move Google from their position as number one search engine. A noble goal, to be sure, but knowing Google, it’s only a matter of time before the search giant finds something to one-up Bing and Facebook. What’s important is that this competition can only mean better searches for the average user. What is your preference in search engines? Do you think that Bing and Facebook getting together will hurt Google’s market share?
Written by Brennan Mack