Facebook, Microsoft Deepen Search Ties
The companies described the agreement -- a deepening of an existing partnership -- as a big step in improving the personalization of search results for everything from movies to restaurants. The deal could also give Microsoft a way to distinguish Bing from Google's market leading search engine.
At an event Wednesday at Microsoft's Silcon Valley offices, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, without mentioning Google by name, said Microsoft was more willing than others to take chances with its search engine. “They really are the underdog here,“ Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Because of that they're incentivized go all out and innovate.“
The sharing of personal data between the two giants could raise privacy concerns. Bing will have access to all of the public information about a user and their Facebook friends, including names and photos. Facebook said all the information shared with Bing had been made public by Facebook users, and added that people could opt out of the new services.
Google has access to more limited Facebook data for its search engine, but a spokesman wouldn't comment on whether it has sought a deal akin to Microsoft's.
“We're always interested in expanding the comprehensiveness of our real-time and social search features, but don't have anything to announce at this time,“ the spokesman said.
Facebook executives said they were focused on their partnership with Microsoft at the moment but didn't describe the relationship as exclusive. The first examples of the collaboration, scheduled to appear Wednesday, will include a special box on Bing's search results that highlights websites to which a person's network of friends have previously indicated they “liked“ on Facebook.
Bing will also feature a service for finding people online -- say, an old roommate. It will display Facebook profiles based on the closest connections to a user's Facebook friends. Facebook and Microsoft executives said they expect to add further forms of integration between their sites in the future. In 2007, Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook for a 1.6% stake at the time.
While search engines have traditionally determined the relevance of search results through mathematical formulas that rely heavily on linking between Web pages, Microsoft executives said personal connections like the ones found on Facebook can be more authoritative for certain types of searches.
“The best answers aren't going to come from websites, but from people -- and most importantly from people who know something about you,“ said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's online-audience business.
In an interview, Mr. Mehdi declined to say how much he thought the Facebook partnership could increase its share of the search market. “I do think this can be a new era in the search game,“ he said.
Bing is tapping into Facebook's “instant personalization“ feature, which automatically connects a Facebook ID to another website. Users have the option to opt out of the personalization service both on Facebook's own privacy-settings page and on the top right corner of the Bing search page.
Mr. Zuckerberg said 500 million Facebook users can already go and look up public information on Facebook users, so “why shouldn't an application be able to do that to give you an awesome experience, too?“
Bing won't send information about searches back to Facebook, so a user's potentially sensitive searches won't get exposed to their friends. Microsoft won't be able to use the Facebook data to target ads on the Bing site, the companies said.
Microsoft has seen its share of U.S. searches rise since introducing Bing last year, but new research released Wednesday showed how far it still lags behind Google. Web-traffic tracker comScore said Google's share of U.S. searches was 66.1% in September, while Microsoft's was 11.2%. Microsoft's Bing also powers the search results on Yahoo, which accounted for 16.7% of U.S. searches last month.
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