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Is Facebook Bing’s Secret Weapon To Beat Google?

Written by - 13 Comments
Categories: Bing, Facebook, Search Engine

One of the strongest references and trust points for any product or service is for a friend to recommend a product or service. It happens every day, a friend asks you “Do you like the Kindle?” or “I noticed you have an iPhone, what do you think of it?”. It can happen at a party, at work or even online via email or Facebook. Is Facebook Bings Secret Weapon?

I recall a community event we were planning and at the first meeting one person had an iPhone by the time we finished the organisation of  the event a couple of months later everyone had bought one…the power  of “word of mouth”!!

The Power Of “World Of Mouth”

We now have word of mouth on steroids and it is called “World of Mouth” where people share their likes online (Facebook) to their friends and they pass it on and soon 1,000 people Globally have heard about your event, product or service.

Bing recently announced that they have “introduced Liked Results, which promotes links your friends have publicly liked or shared via Facebook…If your friends have publicly liked or shared any of the algorithmic search results shown on Bing, we will now surface them right below the result.”

Is Facebook Bing's Secret Weapon?

If several of my friends that have been to Napa in the past have “Liked” Churchill Manor, it gets highlighted with their pictures and names – making it easier for me to quickly refine my search and decide where I should stay.

Now that starts to really up the game on the power play of social search with all its trust leverage and social proof to possibly be a game changer.

Bing’s Social Search

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What Google Is Missing

Google doesn’t have the relationship with Facebook that Bing has and is missing the access to the “Like” data that is the Facebook walled garden and cannot reproduce those results. Recent research from comScore has shown that Bing is leading core search engine growth with it’s increase in search volume reaching 29% in 2010.

The growth of Facebook is also starting to make the Google look over its shoulder and wonder how it can stop the social networking gorilla invading its turf. Last year total time spent on Facebook surpassed Google for the first time.

Is Google’s domination under threat with Bing working in closer partnership with Facebook?  The social web is changing the internet’s landscape and nothing is forever so what you see today will be quite different in 10 years.

What are your thoughts?


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  • http://ronaldredito.org/blog ronaldredito

    I guess Bing still cannot beat Google. I noticed that when you type names on Facebook’s search field, you get redirected to Bing’s search results.

    However, the like functionality in Facebook is not the same as searching using search engine. Still, when people needs something, they will Google it first.

  • Kieron Rowe

    It’s incredible just how quickly social media has become a core element of our day-to-day lives. I think the reason most of us still use Google is that it’s a cultural icon. Facebook on the other hand is a cultural revolution.

  • http://blog.esimplestudios.com Gabriele Maidecchi

    I find it always kinda creepy to imagine friend’s faces laying around recommending me stuff, probably I am just not psychologically ready for this level of loss of privacy (not like I am a privacy freak, I really am not, but I guess I still have some boundaries).
    However I am not blind, I see the business value of this partnership and I agree that the potential is pretty much gamechanging.
    Google is missing out, yes, but I doubt they’ll stay behind and watch the “enemy” plot behind their back. I am pretty sure they have something big planned, they never sat waiting for too long.

  • http://twitter.com/LeoWid Leon Widrich

    What a great post Jeff. I was EXACTLY thinking this. I thought, Bing was crap, and its results actually still are. Neither do I believe that Likes will change anything for the value of the their results. However, it is the simple presence and exposure Bing gains via Facebook, which puts them into people’s heads day in day out. That’s marketing at it’s best and an incredible advantage to Bing. Again, awesome post, Jeff! :)

  • Anonymous

    I’m a big Google supporter. I’m looking to Google to help prevent Facebook from continuing to dictate to me what I want. But this is a smart move, and I think it’ll make a difference for Bing in the long run. And even though i heart google, I stopped using it on my iPhone. I like Bing better in that space. Google was too slow, and most of my mobile search requests are common knowledge stuff I want to verify. Bing doesn’t suffer there. For research, I still like Google better.

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  • http://twitter.com/AddLikeFollow N.M.Yap

    I agree with (and like) the article perspective much, esp. the part about Google not having access the Like data and losing turf to Facebook on time spent. In this aspect Google has turned from innovator to follower (“they” always do, its like a law of growth). The recent launch of Google’s +1 is supposed to challenge Like. So far it has been quite a successful first few days, appearing in lots of sites and growing. It would be interesting to see how that goes. It’s no wonder Facebook is aligning with Microsoft Bing, makes sense! Offtopic: have you guys noticed how “Follow” (following Twitter’s Follow) is everywhere in Google empire (youtube, picasa, reader etc)

  • http://www.iuri.com.ar Iuri Izrastzoff

    Google+ seems to aim to that threat and I think there are several reasons to believe that this try will work. They have already included de 1+ in google results, so the google “like” will be an importan part of the game of recommendation. I think google has done what was needed to “face” facebook.

  • http://twitter.com/zaidrasid Zaid Rasid

    Wow Jeff, another great post.  I think you’re definitely onto something here.  I see a resurgence of Microsoft, probably first in the mobile industry and then next in search.  And once Google+ is eroded and Facebook remains dominant we’re going to see Bing gain some ground.  And the social aspect is going to play a large part. Nice!

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  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Thanks Irvin for that awesome contribution to the conversation on this post. I think Google+ will be a force and it already is.
    Its challenge at the moment is its engagement levels, as it sits at about 3 minutes per month on average compared to Facebook’s 400 minutes per month.
    So it is still watch this space!

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Thanks Irvin for that awesome contribution to the conversation on this post. I think Google+ will be a force and it already is.
    Its challenge at the moment is its engagement levels, as it sits at about 3 minutes per month on average compared to Facebook’s 400 minutes per month.
    So it is still watch this space!

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