The social networking giant Facebook, which is perceived as a space to share personal content, is now trying to get into the role of a search engine. The leading social networking site is currently Testing an in-app keyword search engine that would help users to find articles and websites on the internet that can be added to status updates along with a caption. What is worth mentioning is the fact that this search can be performed without the help of Google. There will be an “Add A Link” option beside the buttons for adding pictures, tagging friends, picking the right sticker and share locations. Some Facebook users on iOS devices in the US would be able to see this new option.
Benefits of ‘Add A Link’
- This will facilitate Facebook to publish more structured data according to the user’s preference.
- This is a new way of sharing a link that has already been shared on your Facebook as status update. It is interesting to know that Facebook has indexed a humungous number (more than one trillion) of posts to enable users to search for links.
- This feature eliminates the need to search for links on Google! Even browsing through the news feed would be irrelevant.
- This will help users to share news and other original content on their News Feeds directly.
- A friend of the user who posted a link as a New Feed may also share or like the post.
- It will augment Facebook’s position as the source of referral traffic on the internet.
Better User Engagement
Centralized Attention: This feature will benefit the mobile users. 70% of the advertisement revenue of Facebook comes from mobile and there was a need for providing more user engagement to its advertisers. At present, the process of finding a new story or news that you want to share involves a lot of app switching and browsing. Multiple taps and copy-pasting lead to a hindrance in the mobile attention span. The additional in-app search feature will help in centralization of mobile users’ attention and activity to its own platform.
It’s Different: Google may still remain the best search engine product but with the ‘Add a Link’ option Facebook will be able to make a difference to its followers. It will keep its users glued to the wall as long as possible.
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