Should Google get worried?

30/04/10 posted by Liz Niland

Will you ever give up on Google? Not just to quickly test if Bing got better, but perhaps because you no longer need the services of a search engine? While we don’t suggest you throw in the SEO towel any time soon, the push towards location-based marketing and personalised user experiences is set to bring what you need - when you need it - direct to your desktop or smartphone.

Pete Cashmore writes that Facebook’s universal “Like” button spells trouble for Google as it doesn’t rely on traditional links; otherwise known as the bread and butter of search engines. “That’s really bad news for Google, since its algorithm uses links between sites to determine their order in search results. Facebook seeks to replace this open system of links between pages with the ‘social links’ (or Likes) that it controls. Google and other search engines won't have full access to all these Likes, so the company best positioned to rank the Web will be Facebook.”

Of course, that’s as long as Facebook doesn’t self-combust in the damned-but-oh-so-necessary flames of privacy. To make those matters worse, it was revealed this week that Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t actually believe in privacy. When social media is combined with GPS technology and location-based marketing, lingering privacy issues are sure to throw a spanner in the works and will no doubt lead to even further widespread concern. While Zuckerberg may not mind who knows his exact location, favourite film and coffee order at any given moment, it is certain that others the world over will.

It is here that Facebook, and other businesses looking to experiment with location-targeting can take a leaf from the Foursquare book. While this company knows exactly what users have been doing and where they are right now, it has had few run-ins with controversy or fights over privacy. It is, as they say, information that could be dangerous if passed to the wrong hands and Foursquare have so far done a remarkable job with getting the tech-world a little more interested in location-based possibilities.

While ever we still need to search for things, Google will have its place. In the present though - and definitely more so in the not too distant future - the items we would traditionally search for (nearby coffee spots, new movies by favourite actors, even prospective love interests) are being offered to us, straight to our social networking dashboards.