[LINK] Facebook and Microsoft
Jan Whitaker
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Thu Oct 14 09:18:29 AEDT 2010
In whose interest is this?
Microsoft, Facebook team up on social search
http://www.9news.com/money/article.aspx?storyid=157918&catid=344
SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. is starting to incorporate what your
friends do on Facebook right into its Bing search engine.
The software maker began rolling out a new feature Wednesday that can
show what someone's Facebook friends "like" on the search results page.
On Facebook and sites around the Web, people can click a "like"
button to show support or share information with Facebook friends. In
the coming weeks, if you use Bing to search for a topic in the news,
articles that friends have shared on Facebook might appear, along
with their names and Facebook profile photos. Restaurants and movies
that friends have "liked" could help you decide what to do on your next date.
Microsoft also added Facebook profile results to people searches. In
the past, a search for an old friend from elementary school who
shares a name with a celebrity would leave Web surfers swimming in
search results for the celebrity. Now, if that friend is part of your
extended Facebook network, a link to his or her Facebook profile
might pop up at the top of search results.
The new features were unveiled at a media event at Microsoft's
Silicon Valley offices in Mountain View, Calif.
As these features trickle out to Bing users, those who are also
logged in to Facebook will see a small notification asking if they
want to see Facebook friends' information incorporated into search results.
Bing is using Facebook's existing "instant personalization" feature,
which customizes websites based on the likes and interests of
Facebook members and their friends. Restaurant-review website Yelp
and the music site Pandora also use instant personalization.
Tailoring search results based on what friends do online is not a new
idea. Google Inc., the most-visited search engine, has added ways for
people to recommend certain search results or re-order the list of
links on a search results page. But neither feature has really caught on.
The tie to Facebook could help No. 3 search provider Microsoft nab
more Web searches. Not only is it competing with Google, Microsoft is
racing against Yahoo Inc. Microsoft is currently providing search
technology to Yahoo, the No. 2 search engine, but the companies are
still making separate decisions about how to display results.
Microsoft gets some search-ad revenue from queries made on Yahoo, but
searches on its own site are more lucrative.
Privacy concerns have plagued Facebook over the years as the company
has encouraged members to reveal more details about themselves. The
site has a history of introducing features that people must then
remove, or opt out of, instead of waiting for members to actively
sign up for the new features. That approach has riled privacy advocates.
Facebook has responded with more granular controls so users can
decide exactly who can see their photos, status updates and other details.
Privacy questions dominated a question-and-answer session after the
announcements. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that Bing only
taps into information that Facebook users have already designated as
public. (To turn off instant personalization entirely, go to "privacy
settings" on Facebook, click on "applications and websites" and
select "edit settings" next to "instant personalization.")
Microsoft has been working with Facebook since 2006. In 2007, the
Redmond, Wash.-based software maker invested $240 million in Facebook
in exchange for a 1.6 percent stake.
The companies said more integrated features will be coming to Bing in
the future.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer
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