While Google and Facebook may be rivals, the two companies have entered into an agreement that will see Google being able to crawl the social media network for public information, displaying that information in search results.
What this means is that when a user searches for a person or information, users will see some content from the Facebook app, including any public profile information. Listings will be shown as deep links, taking users to the appropriate section of an app when the user clicks on them.
The partnership is a big win for Google, especially considering how glued to Facebook users have become to their phones. Google is still the dominant player when it comes to search, and it is unable to index information within other companies' apps, which is where users spend most of their time on their phone.
Of course, it's important to note that Google won't be able to access any private information for displaying in search results, only public information. Private information is obviously most of the information on Facebook, however, it will be nice to see things like business listings in an easier-to-read format within search.
The move is also indicative of something bigger than this particular partnership — Google is making inroads when it comes to searching within apps. Because of the fact that it is unable to index information within an app, the company has to convince app developers to let it index that information.
Of course, the partnership is good news for Facebook, too, with users who search for information being more likely to follow links through to the Facebook app, where they'll stay.
"When people search for public Facebook content on the mobile Web, those who use Facebook for Android can now click through and go straight to the Facebook app," said a spokesperson for Facebook in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
Via: Wall Street Journal
