If you’re like me you followed today’s TechCrunch Disrupt 2012 with great interest, especially as Mark Zuckerberg took the stage to talk Facebook’s IPO, Mobile Monetization, and even Social Search.
I’ve seen a lot of buzz online tonight about why Facebook search would or would not end “SEO”. I think both of these arguments are absolutely moot points. If you really love SEO, let me explain…
Google Isn’t the Only Search Engine to Optimize
I remember getting into this industry, one of the first things I was told was that I wasn’t doing SEO, I was doing optimization for Google. Nobody cares about Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com.
Google is the most dominant search engine the world has ever seen, but it’s not the end all be all. There are other search engines people use, and I enjoy optimizing for them just the same!
I don’t love SEO because of Google, I’ll game anything with an algorithm for fun and profit.
There are Lots of Other Places to Practice “SEO”
- YouTube’s Search Engine
- Facebook’s EdgeRank News Feed
- Twitter Search API
- Apple’s iTunes App Store Rankings
- Yelp’s Local Search Powering Siri
- Zagat’s Restaurant Search
Yes there are many other “Search Engines” that I LOVE to work with. They all have algorithms I can pick apart, reverse engineer, and test against. No matter what company powered that engine, I promise they’d have patents that Bill Slawski could write about for years to come. Like Bill, I am passionate about learning, not about keeping Google in business.
Pitting Facebook vs. Google is Only Limiting YOU
Arguing with your social media buddies about the merits of a Facebook powered search engine doesn’t hurt anybody but you. Google will keep right on going, and so will Facebook.
If you are loyal to a certain medium or method, you will always be a slave to it. I for one, welcome a Facebook search engine, or any other intelligent form of gathering information. Even if it eventually completely replaces Google, it’s just another green field ripe with potential.
Any competition whatsoever for Google would be great, especially if it approached search from a different stance.
Facebook doesn’t have close to the patent portfolio that Google does, but they do have some, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for new ones.
Yahoo continues to pump out some new patent filings every week. Microsoft hasn’t stopped publishing patents involving web search, and a number of those include inventors who had been working on search related topics for windows operating systems, and are now focusing on Web search.
There are other problems in search that are being explored by many other companies, both every large, and very small. It’s part of what makes SEO interesting.
I’m all about competition. I hate to see so many SEOs blindly support Google as their meal ticket vs. taking a step back and seeing the big picture. Agree 100% Bill, thanks for the comment.
That is what made America so great! Competition. Whatever the business, competition is important. Variety is the spice of life! More, More, More is my motto.