The article “Google and Bing Race to Search Social Media” describes the competition between search engines and social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter. The search engine sites, namely Google and Microsoft’s Bing, have recently taken measures to capitalize on the success of the social networking sites by allowing for users to “tap into the real time conversations” by following tweets and comments without actually logging into the networking sites.
Bing has already implemented the website bing.com/twitter, through which search engine users may enter tags or keywords and see real time public Twitter messages pertaining to the topics. The feature, implemented on October 21, 2009, is not currently a part of the main Bing search engine, but may included if it proves successful. Bing has already discussed similar options with Facebook and the incorporation of public posts to the search engine will soon be a reality. Google is already responsible for representing the social media site MySpace in its search engine, and will soon be incorporating Twitter in a similar fashion. Additionally, they will be implementing a social search tool through which users will have access to the information posted by friends.
I think that this is a great use of information technology on the internet. According to the article, the web traffic of Facebook has grown to three times the size it was a year ago, while Twitter’s traffic has grown to ten times the size. On the other hand, the web traffic to search engines has grown at a much smaller rate of 15%. The search engine sites have taken advantage of this statistic by making the effort to re-direct the web traffic. They are trying to aid users in keeping up to date with the desired “real time conversations” without logging in and continuing the increase in traffic to the networking sites.
These developments will not benefit me until the Facebook searches have been implemented, since I am not a Twitter or MySpace user, nonetheless, I am looking forward to the changes. Today’s world is based on technology and communication and I think that sometimes we are too caught up in the technology aspect. I find that many times when I log on to Facebook with a specific purpose, such as finding information, sending a message or posting a link, I get caught up looking at pictures or posts that I would otherwise have no interest in, and end up forgetting what it was that I wanted to do in the first place. I think that the ability to use search engines without logging on to the networking site will end up giving us the same information in a significantly smaller amount of time, allowing for more personal real time communication in the form of physical conversation. The less time we spend in front of a computer screen, the better.
Kahrif, Olga, and Aaron Ricadela. "Google and Bing Race to Search Social Media." Google and Bing Race to Search Social Media - BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 21 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 Nov. 2009.
The idea of being searchable through Google is upsetting to me. When I joined Facebook, I understood that I was giving away a plethora of information about myself, but I thought I was giving the right to choose who sees it. I thought the Privacy Settings would limit who my information was available to. Now, it seems that that information I chose not to share with everyone will be everyone's information. Being searchable makes me fear that I will be too traceable to hackers and too available to potential employers. Also, I think this will contribute to my time wasting activities. Like kbrownette said, I get caught up looking at pictures on Facebook and viewing conversations that have nothing to do with me. I think the ability to search whatever name pops into my head will result in more time spent being unproductive.
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