In a post on Search Engine Land, Greg Sterling overviews a trending story that claims that Facebook now pushes more users to major portals like Yahoo and MSN than the leading search engine, Google – and that its share of online search is growing fast.
As Sterling points out, however, we shouldn’t rush to judgment. There’s still a lot we don’t know – are people using Facebook for general web searches or to view Facebook content, and are users going to Yahoo or MSN via Facebook search or just jumping there when finishing up on Facebook?
Regardless of who takes the official lead, the truth is that both are important today, and will be for the foreseeable future. It really isn’t an either or proposition. Instead of worrying about who has bragging rights as the most popular, we should consider what we already know – that all elements of search – including local social search, local mobile search, etc. – are continuing to evolve and grow at a rapid pace.
That’s where we step in. How do we provide our advertisers with access to these tools to reach their customers and generate leads? We should be taking advantage of all available channels – our own products, established players in search and emerging leaders. In doing so, we ensure that our clients are at the cutting edge no matter which sites or trends catch on faster than the other – or eventually win out down the road.
And we have to remember new services or technologies will continue to change the landscape, there will always be a new company ready to take over the market. How we harness that change for our advertisers is what will matter in the long run.
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