The social media news wire was on fire today, as Facebook and Google both announced big news today. Facebook acquired Friendfeed for $50 million dollars, announced a real-time search engine feature, and Google announced that a new version of their search engine will be rolled out soon, and my guess is that it will include faster indexing, so it feels like real-time searches of content.
Facebook acquires Friendfeed
I had a Friendfeed account, but I never used it. It was mostly a tricked-out status updater, but the one nice thing it had was a real-time search engine that far surpassed Twitter’s search engine in terms of functionality and features. However, it wasn’t near as valuable, because it didn’t have the content volume of Twitter. Add Facebook’s 250 million users and all of their content, now you’ve got something. So, it was only natural for Facebook to immediately announce a real-time search engine, because they will take Friendfeeds and make it their own with a few modifications to integrate with better with the Facebook infrastructure. I think this will be a good acquisition for Facebook, and it will position them as more of a leader in the social media world of heavyweights.
Google’s New Search Engine
It’s not a coincidence that Google announces their new and improved search engine the same day that Facebook announces their real-time search engine and acquisition of Friendfeed. According to the Mashable article, they believe it is faster, more reliable, and finds performs more real-time searches.
To test the new versions: GO HERE
Here’s another article from Mashable comparing the new Facebook search engine to the new Google search engine.
They call it the new “search war”, but I really don’t think anyone can go to war with Google on searching. Facebook has been behind in terms of technology in the past, so for them to hit a homerun this quickly makes me a little skeptical. Only time will tell.
