Google it? Don't you mean Facebook it?

In June, Facebook confirmed to allfacebook.com that "all Open Graph-enabled web pages will show up in search when a user likes them". With this news and also that the social media giant has offered instructions for creating Open Graph Meta Data, it seems a new breed of engine and, therefore also, SEO is emerging. The question is, how fast?

In simple terms, Facebook is creating its own socially driven search engine. Google provides its results based on a mixture of authority and relevance, using the quantity and quality of backlinks as a measure. Facebook's Open Graph search engine, when fully go-go-go, will use a ‘like' as the determining factor, as long as sites can be accessed through meta data and a ‘like' button is embedded on the page.

It's revolutionary for sure and professionally I'm incredibly interested and excited about the PR potential; personally, I have a feeling I'll be staying loyal to Google. My gut reactions are -

• Most of the results, for most of the things, I use a search engine for are not pages I would ‘like' or really expect others to ‘like' - the system doesn't seem suitable for all web content
• The people who cast the majority of likes surely cannot be representative of what is quality or relevant information - I don't care if people like it, I want good, accurate content
• Unless policed by Facebook (and it has taken years for Google to cut out the spam) linkbait will morph darkly into likebait - it's currently too easy to click a like (I do it by accident on my phone all the time!) or create multiple accounts for that sole purpose

However, and it's a big one after all that cynicism, any brand that would like to target even a small portion of Facebook users (a mere 25,000,000 in the UK alone) should probably pay attention, particularly if their target audience is under 20. I advise businesses get informed and come to their own conclusions sooner rather than later but it's about looking to the future and how younger generations interact with the possibilities the internet provides. Just because I can't see its use within my personal search habits at the moment that doesn't mean I'll be forced to eat my words somewhere down the line!

For my own curiosity, I've posted the following question to my status and I've asked my seventeen year old brother to also do the same. "If it was possible to 'like' any internet page and then use Facebook as a search engine, instead of Google, and it gave you results based on what was liked the most - do you think you would use this new type of search more than Google? More/Less/Equal/Don't Know". Results to follow....

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