Forge Web

Google announced last week through Twitter that it’s now including Facebook Page updates into its search engine page results. We got a hint back in December of 2009 that something like this might happen when they first started to introduce real time data into search results; you’ll notice Google’s been tapping social networks MySpace and Twitter as well.

What’s interesting to know is that Facebook is only giving Google access to updates from Pages, which are about 3 million and counting, although only account for a percentage of Facebook traffic. They’re generally used by celebrities, politicians, brands and local businesses, and not the average user, which I personally think is great.

I’m sure there are people out there thinking that Facebook should let Google have the whole deal and index everything in sight. However, the average Facebook user does not care to have their status updates published in the search engine page results. Meaningful information is targeted, useful, and not dependent on the quantity.

Users already have the option to share their information publicly, but do they? Nope, they asked Facebook to give them even more privacy than ever. With that said, the power of real time search comes from relevancy and Google has proven they are the king, at least for now and probably a while longer. I say this because I want to dispel the misconception that quantity is the answer to all.

Facebook has a megaton of data from its 400+ million users, and most of it isn’t going to provide a better user experience in Google Search just because there’s a lot of it. For example, I don’t think it is very user friendly if I’m searching for my favorite song, and all I get are 1 million people agreeing that said song is amazing and nothing else. Better yet, 1 million people with affiliate links to ITunes.

What we can take from this is that these changes in Google are geared towards businesses and should be made a higher priority in social media campaigns. Updates that are indexed will include links, photos, videos, just not comments made by fans (another plus in my book). If you have a brand and it’s not on Facebook, best get moving.

But don’t get the wrong idea; this isn’t another channel for promotion and old school marketer spam (that’s what Twitter’s for). Facebook is all about engaging your fans and the participation element, far from the proving grounds for your latest sales pitch. Save the ads for your AdWords (or Twitter) campaigns and you’ll be headed in the right direction.