I see facebook just rolled out this new feature to me; now when I add a status update, I can indicate “looking for” with a pretty extensive list of options (presumably populated from common ‘other’ insertions).
Facebook’s new ‘looking for’ feature; integrating search and social q&a
The [integration of Bing]1 (which I [talk about here]2) is a related angle on this, but the new feature builds in a more formal structure, giving facebook access to labelled search data and personalised recommendations (alongside all the other data it holds around locations and social-network graph). It would also facilitate a further integration of search results into facebook – facebook could start posting comments on your “looking for” updates. In fact, this morning I started a feedback survey on facebook:
#blog/FacebookStudy:”How much do you agree with this statement?: ‘This post feels like an advert’” …presumably to make ads less ‘adverty’ #blog/
— Simon Knight (@sjgknight) July 8, 2014
And there is very obvious application of “looking for” updates for advertising, but only if they can do it without being icky (and without making it adverty) – could we imagine a model where companies pay to have individual’s posts “upgraded” if they (coincidentally) happen to be about that company. It’s “authentic”, avoids looking adverty, makes use of facebook up/downrating content…… Interestingly, I can’t see any blog or product info update to link to!
Footnotes
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https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook/what-are-you-looking-for-today/33443992130 ↩
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http://sjgknight.com/finding-knowledge/2013/01/personalisation-and-personal-recommendation-tailoring-my-knowledge-graph/ “Personalisation and Personal Recommendation – tailoring my knowledge graph” ↩