Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

Facebook went “live” today with Live Web Search functionality within their site search box. The integration was part of Microsoft’s $250 million investment in Facebook last year and has been long in coming. When Facebook users start to type a search query, along with “Search Facebook” and related network information, there is now a “Search the Web” feature. When choosing to search the web the user gets Live.com web results integrated into the Facebook UI with Microsoft AdCenter results displayed alongside the results. When a search result is clicked the user is taken to the Live.com search engine result page.

From the Facebook blog: “By integrating web search into Facebook, you can increase the information available to share with your friends, family and coworkers on the site. For example, your friend may invite you to an event at a new restaurant. Without leaving Facebook, you can check out the details of the restaurant on the web. Or, say you see photos in your News Feed about a friend’s recent trip to Dubai. Inspired, you can search the web for more information about travel without having to leave Facebook. Along with your search results, you may also begin to see ads for products, services or other things that are relevant to your query. “

Microsoft says that this is the first step in their partnership with Facebook and are currently exploring additional ways to “integrate Live Search more deeply into the Facebook experience”. This is certainly not the last we have heard on this and I am sure there will be better integration of Live Search within Facebook. However, looking at what went live today how much is this really going to do for Microsoft? I am sure Microsoft will see some incremental revenue from their ads, but I question how many people are actually going to search the web while within Facebook. For those that do search the web I would have though there would be better integration of Live Search within the UI - is this really going to take search share away from Google and Yahoo? No, it wont.

I hoping this is just a first crack and better integration will be coming shortly. Lets go Microsoft!

• Microsoft Releases Updated Live Search Engine
• Public Search Listings on Facebook
• Facebook For iPhone Goes Live
• Live Search updates home page with “hotspots”