Search & Blogs & Facebook & Social Networks & Google Jon on 05 Sep 2007 01:17 pm
Facebook Gets Searchable
From Mashable, among others, we find that Facebook will soon be listing profiles in search engined like Google, MSN and Yahoo. So if you have a Facebook profile and you have not set it to private, I can “Google” you and find your Facebook page.
To be more accurate, the full profiles will not return in search results, just something that looks like this (from the Facebook blog) :
So your full listing will not appear, but people will certainly be able to get to it provided that they login (or join).
What does this mean? Well, ultimately it will certainly mean more page views and traffic for Facebook, along with more users signing up for their service. Imagine if you’re looking for your old high school friend. Well, you probably do what many people do and just “Google” that friend and voila! - you spot their picture and profile on Facebook. But then how to get in touch with that person? Join Facebook, of course. Considering the number of name searches that probably take place on Google on a daily basis, this should turn out pretty well for Facebook. To be accurate, other social networks, including LinkedIn, have a similar functionality. If you Google your friend who has a LinkedIn profile, it will likely return fairly high in the search results. The page is a shortened version with only some information but also a neat invitation to join LinkedIn so you can see everything about that person.
For Google, it’s more information to index, which is good for them in their quest to index, well, everything. Knowing that you can find friends and old co-workers and the like using Google only makes it a more attractive search engine for users, which of course makes it more profitable for Google.
For the average user, it will open up their profile to more people. That’s either good or bad, depending on your preference and feelings about privacy. Other than name, I don’t believe there is any more information that Facebook will pull from your profile for now. It’s in Facebook’s best interest to get your profile showing up in search more, but from your standpoint you might not want that. Perhaps down the line there will be more opportunities to pull some other information that could help locate someone. For instance, if I don’t remember that person’s last name but I know our High School name then could I find his Facebook profile using Yahoo?
Of course, any Facebook user can control what information is out there in these searches. You can now uncheck a box on your settings page that removes your profile from search engine results. You have about a month to do that, so if you’re worried about privacy you have some time.
Another thing to consider in this development (and in others from similar sites) is how you manage your online reputation, a point brought up here. As more information about you is available to others in search engines, you need to be conscious of what is out there and what people can find. You wouldn’t want your prospective employer (or your current employer for that matter), for example, finding your profile if it had some compromising photos or rants.