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Facebook with the rollout of Graph Search (terrible name) is staking its ground in local search. Here are selected comments from Matt McGee, Danny Sullivan & Greg Sterling that I thought summarized the situation well:<\/p>\nFacebook with the rollout of Graph Search (terrible name) is staking its ground in local search. Here are selected comments from Matt McGee, Danny Sullivan & Greg Sterling that I thought summarized the situation well:<\/p>\n
Greg Sterling<\/strong><\/p>\n What Does FB (Graph) Search Mean for Local?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n If Facebook\u2019s execution is successful and the UX is good then the local search market may consolidate around Google, Facebook, Yelp and to some degree Apple in mobile. Vertical and niche sites\/apps will remain viable and perhaps continue to thrive. But \u201cthin\u201d horizontal local sites could effectively be done.<\/p>\n The early weakness of the product will be data and the fact that its database is limited or incomplete vs other competitors. This was especially true in my test of Nearby vs. Yelp.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s still a bit too early to say I\u2019m not going that far out on a limb to argue that it\u2019s possible Facebook Graph Search (and Nearby) could become just as important in local as Google.<\/p>\n Matt McGee<\/strong><\/p>\n Facebook Graph Search Arrives To Challenge Google, Yelp, Foursquare & Others<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Facebook Graph Search will be more valuable to active Facebook users \u2014 those who\u2019ve actively Liked businesses and pages, artists and movies, and so forth.<\/p>\n The big question for the long haul is whether or not Facebook Graph Search is good enough that users will change their search activity enough to put a dent in \u201cthe Google habit.\u201d Although Facebook is saying that its new search product offers a different use-case than traditional web search, anything that keeps users on Facebook longer and away from Google would be a win in Facebook\u2019s view.<\/p>\n Local search may be one of the most compelling use cases. As the second screenshot above shows, Facebook can build a very Yelp-like and Foursquare-like local recommendations engine based on the combination of friends, their Facebook check-ins, their \u201clikes\u201d of local businesses and similar data.<\/p>\n SEO For Facebook Graph Search? Facebook Has Some Tips<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n The business Page is what a small\/local business can control the most, and Facebook\u2019s three specific tips for business owners, then, are focused on optimizing a Page for the new search (and this is straight from their post):<\/p>\n Danny Sullivan<\/strong><\/p>\n How The New Facebook Search Is Different & Unique From Google Search<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n With Facebook Graph Search, the objects we search for aren\u2019t web pages but instead virtual representations of real world objects: people, places and things. The connections are primarily Facebook Likes. Did such-and-such a person like a particular photo? A particular doctor? A particular restaurant? Those likes are the ties that bind the information in Facebook together.<\/p>\n A Facebook search can show you restaurants in San Francisco liked by your friends. Or further, those liked by your friends who actually live in San Francisco, as opposed to those who live elsewhere. Or those liked by your single friends, your straight friends, your gay friends, your friends who work for a particular company\u2026.<\/p>\n Need a good plumber? An electrician? Someone to do your taxes? A doctor? A dentist? These are all typically questions that are great to ask friends. You trust friends. With Facebook Graph Search, there\u2019s the promise of asking all your friends this at once without actually having to ask them. You can just search and discover professionals like this that they like.<\/p>\n That all depends, however, on whether those professionals themselves have created a presence for themselves on Facebook. In turn, it also depends on whether those who use them have also liked them. Without those connections, there\u2019s nothing to mine.<\/p>\n If the utility to use Facebook as a type of super-Yelp or super-LinkedIn doesn\u2019t prove itself at first, at the very least, Facebook Graph Search will allow people to search within Facebook itself in a better way than they can now. For example, people will be able to find all the photos they\u2019ve liked on Facebook.<\/p>\n It remains very early days, but I already find it fascinating the types of searches this is allowing me to do, searches I hadn\u2019t contemplated before. It reminds me of how in the past, we wouldn\u2019t have thought of doing things like YouTube searches or Twitter searches, since we didn\u2019t have those resources. Now, we search at these places for unique needs. Facebook is a great repository of data, and it finally has a search catching up to all it knows.<\/p>\n John Batelle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n