Facebook is undergoing change, and the new Facebook is disrupting the digital landscape. From inking deals to provide mobile payments, to the absolute latest news (post IPO):
A team of more than 20 Facebook engineers — led by a former Google programmer — is at work on a vastly improved search engine within the site, according a Businessweek report, reported on Mashable, Friday, March 23, 2012.
The new face of Facebook may be one that is barely recognizable in the next year or two. The Facebook Timeline is now active, and promises to have individuals and companies running to their desktops to catch up with the early adopters. In addition to the traditional (if something this new is traditional) photo, a masthead style image is now possible, furthering the brand image possibilities.
Mobile Ads, Mobile payments, Facebook Ads, Cash Transfer and Timeline are all changing the way Facebook looks to us, and the way we look at Facebook. All of this change is moving at a pace well ahead of social media contenders. Is all this change good?
In a video published by TED, Ideas Worth Spreading (TED.com), they highlight the changes that Facebook and Google are making and how they are affecting our search capabilities. Eli Pariser describes the changes in his presentation entitled “Beware Online Filter Bubbles.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s
Mark Zukerburg, Co-Founder of Facebook was quoted as saying: “A squirrel dying in your front yard may be more relevant to your interests now than people dying in Africa.”
Pariser goes on to reflect on what that statement means to how both Facebook (and Google) is changing the way we search and find information on the internet. Facebook’s dominance of the social media platforms places a huge amount of influence on how the searches bring us information. To explain, he cites how a searcher in Iowa may get entirely difference from a searcher in New York (any two disparate locations), using the exact keywords in their search. The changing face of Facebook is changing the face of the internet as well.
Facebook’s dominance is better represented by the graph below, courtesy of Digital Quarters. As you can note, Facebook has nearly as much of a share of the entire social media participation as all of the others combined. A 95% share is nothing to ignore. As Facebook continues to evolve, the entire social media landscape, as well as the internet itself is subject to recurring change.
The feel of Facebook may or may not seem any different, but change is always constant, so time will tell how much of a positive or negative impact Facebook will have on itself.
The algorithmic editing that is apparent in Facebook’s monitoring of the fan pages is remarkable, in case you were unaware. And, like Google, they are literally altering the look and feel of what we see on our pages. The above stated video was filmed in February of 2011, and is not a well known video to the 800 million Facebook users. At the time of this writing, there have been only a little more than one half million YouTube views. That is less than 0.07 (7/100 %) of all users. Facebook and Google are not the only ones experimenting and altering the search findings. Huffington Post and Yahoo are also personalizing the search experience.
All of this is changing the face of the internet, and the new face of Facebook is just the start.
What do you think, is change good?
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