On Tuesday WebProNews reported that Facebook had been granted a search based patent. Although they applied for the patent back in 2004, good planning probably.

Facebook is no longer, and hasn’t been for a while, a place for university students to chat and share photos, it’s become a society. A mini culture that, not only groups of friends join but businesses and brands. If it continues to constantly attract companies to its Pages section then Facebook will have a lot of search authority.

We’ve been talking about Facebook and its SEO potential quite a bit over the last few months and I don’t know if I’m in the minority but I am not a massive fan of Facebook. I find it annoying, frustrating and not that intuitive. I don’t think by becoming a search engine it would improve or make me want to use it more.

I think the people that use Google, Yahoo and Bing are of a broader demographic than the people that use Facebook. If a receptionist needs to book a hotel for their boss in a Birmingham are they going to log into Facebook and have a look through there or are they more likely to do a quick search in Google/Yahoo/Bing? The search engine of course, this is a fact*.

So although I think Facebook would have potential as a search engine I don’t think it could ever steal Google’s crown. It could steal the younger internet users who are attached to their accounts but never take the SEO kingdom.

*Hypothetical fact

How Social Media, and Facebook in particular had better sit up a listen before it’s too late. The increase of ‘like farms’ and ‘like buying’ is skewing Facebook Search Results. But how will this affect your SEO?

Chris Crum of Web Pro News talks about the increase of “Like Farms” and “Like Buying” websites that have sprung up in order for people to manipulate Facebook Search Results.

The value of a ‘Like’ is not insignificant. When a user ‘Likes’ something it shows up on all of their friends’ news feeds. Their friend can then ‘like’ the content also, and the cycle continues. Within very little time a piece of content can be seen by millions of people. This kind of exposure is the stuff that dreams are made of for many businesses. The added benefit that the recommendation comes from a friend makes it even more powerful and compelling.

Well, on the face of it, a ‘like farm’ or ‘like buying’ site may offer some benefit for your website, insomuch as you can gain more exposure of a ‘word of mouth’ nature from such places. However, I suspect that it is only a matter of time before Facebook has to deal with this type of thing in order to maintain a level of trust in its search results.

Currently, the majority of people are still using Facebook for its intended purpose: connecting with their friends and family. But, the trend is set for more and more people to use it to find businesses, services and products. Indeed with the launch of Facebook Places not so long ago and with all the indications over the last few years that Facebook is set to compete directly with Google for a place in the Search market, it stands to reason that the social giant will have to incorporate an algorithm to combat bad ‘likes’ – just as Google does with ‘bad’ links!

From a user’s point of view, it’s really disconcerting to think that a ‘word of mouth’ recommendation from a ‘friend’ is nothing more than a bought vote!

The SEO impact is enormous. Google uses Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media sites in its SERPs, so the difference between a well ‘liked’ page or site and one that isn’t so well ‘liked’ will be even more significant.

Spamming, and I personally consider the use of a ‘like farm’ or ‘like buying’ site to be a form of spam, is never going to stand you in good stead for the future. It may take a while for Facebook to put measures in place to combat this negativity, but they will.

If you value the long term benefits of a well chosen, well placed keyword within the SERPs, don’t use ‘like farms’ or ‘like buying’ sites to manipulate your listings. There is no quick fix in SEO, there never has been, and there never will be!

P.S … Don’t forget to ‘Like’ this post!

Over at WebProNews the ever delightful Chris Crum has an article reporting July’s search market statistics (for the good ‘ol US of A).

No surprise; Google is still top dog, Bing is making waves and Yahoo has been losing ground over the last year (a nice selection of metaphors).

One interesting stat The Crumster picked out was that searches in America are down from 10.5 billion to 8.8 billion.

This stat is probably linked to the rise and rise of smartphones and the popularity of apps.

I wonder if the recession has made any difference, people will have less disposable cash therefore being reluctant to buy/do things, though surely people use the internet to look for deals…hmmm. Sorry, wasn’t very conclusive there was I?

Google’s been expanding as a brand, Bing’s been trying hard to increase market share, there haven’t been any acts of debauchery linked to any of the major search engines (though there was that whole Google Street View thing); after that high level of analysis I guess that leaves us with smartphones and apps.

I think the Nielsen figures may be a bit flawed. People with smartphones have them by their side all day, they have the internet with them all day. If they have a question, if they want to find out something important (like; Dany N’Guessan goals) they can do that within about 10 secs. So surely these users will make use of search engines, what else will they be using their smartphones for? Making phone calls? No.

If searches had been in decline for the past year I don’t think SEO would be doing as well as it is.

Does this information bring up another point, will there come a time where someone develops a search engine especially for smartphones? At the moment there are sites which have mobile versions, in the future, will we have  Google SERPs that take smartphones screen size, chubby fingers and the fact you’re probably making the search in a bar, trying to prove a friend wrong, into account?

It was the 29th July 2009 when Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo met behind the bike sheds and agreed to gang up on Google by Bing powering Yahoo searches and Yahoo becoming the exclusive worldwide sales force for both companies search advertisers in a deal with a duration of 10 years. It was such a big deal we even did a video about it.

Well finally the companies have announced that the transition of organic results in the USA and Canada is complete a week after Yahoo announced it had begun transitioning Bing results into Yahoo results. This applies to web, image, and video search on Yahoo for both the desktop and mobile experiences of Yahoo Search and is due to roll out into other languages and nations over the coming weeks.

I know what you’re thinking..so what? Well, this could make things more interesting for SEO in the future especially when you consider only a week ago the ComScore report for July came out showing Google’s market share went down from 66.2% to 65.8% and Yahoo’s rose from 16.7 to 17.1. This means combined Yahoo and Bing now owns 28.1% of the search market and Yahoo’s small rise on the back Google’s small drop, may suggest the search market is turning a corner which could easily be furthered if some blog comments I’ve read on the subject are right. The general consensus among these comments is some people now feel Yahoo’s results are more relevant than Google’s “Giving you what you want not what they think you want!” was one commenter’s feelings on the matter.

If this blip (it’s only one month’s data) becomes more of a shift this could have some effect on how SEO is carried out in the future. It’s no secret that due to Google’s massive dominance at present the majority of a SEO strategy is tailored towards it. However, if a noticeable chunk of searchers switch to Yahoo/Bing then two quite different strategies will need to be devised with differing efforts required for each. At present one of the main factors effecting Google ranking is quality of links, where in comparison Yahoo/Bing places more emphasis on content. Therefore a strategy for Yahoo/Bing would have to detail regular updates of relevant content to build and then maintain desired rankings which works out more labour intensive for content writing teams.

How this ‘Bingoo’ partnership works out and whether a shift is really upon us or whether this is a mere flash in a pan remains to be seen. If it turns out to be more Google will without doubt react and this may cause things to stay exactly as they are. Either way the situation is worth monitoring and considering a plan b just in case, may well reap benefits in the long run.

Google’s dominance remains solid but with Bing and Yahoo’s search engine union looking to be completed in the next few weeks there could actually be another option when making a search.

Over at Web Pro News they have the latest data from Chikita showing Bing is now the number two search engine, taking the place of Yahoo.

But with Yahoo’s searches to be powered by Bing I doubt if Yahoo has put as much emphasis on advertising their organic search engine over the last year or so.

Google’s contract with Mozilla is expiring next year meaning that we could see a little bit of a bidding war to become the default search engine of Firefox. Currently, searches using Google on Firefox outnumber Bing and Yahoo’s total searches.

Bing has a powerful ally in Facebook, though at the moment it isn’t necessarily helping it increase in the search engine market however it is exposing 500 million people a day to Bing as a brand and another option.

Bing will definitely have their eyes on the mobile market with Windows Phone 7 arrival in the near future. Smart phones have taken off big-time over the last year. Now there is a choice rather than just the iPhone, and this competition will increase bringing down prices making Smart phones more affordable and ubiquitous. Expect a focus on mobile search engines next year (I guarantee it, hold me to this, this will definitely happen, definitely, maybe).

Next year could see a huge shift in the SEO landscape and with Facebook looking to put down Google’s attempt at social marketing before it starts there probably won’t be a better time to de-throne Google.