Facebook Has Google Sweating Like A Prize Fighter

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So, let me get this straight. There are millions of websites and billion of actual web pages and we’re all competing for the top 20 positions in Google? This is ridiculous!

When I look back at some websites I know and enjoy today, I did not find them through Google, Yahoo!, MSN…etc. I found them from the referral of a friend or family member. I also seem to discover new and interesting websites through the network of blogs I read daily/weekly.

Let me do a quick inventory…

1. I was introduced to YouTube.com by my 1o year old niece. (lol. numa numa dance)

2. Facebook was introduced to me by my ex-girlfriend’s friend.

3. I discovered Digg.com and Reddit.com from a friend’s blog.

4. BitTorrent was introduced to me by my brother.

Do you see a pattern? Grab a paper and pen! List some of the major websites you currently visit. How many of them were from a referral from someone you knew? Maybe a co-worker, friend, relative had referred you? Interesting? I think so!

How does this all tie into Facebook? According to Facebook’s blog, Facebook receives 600 million searches a month, which puts them into the top 20 search engines online in terms of number of searches.

Search Engines as we know them will drastically change in the next 5 years. When the web was young Yahoo!’s directory style was ideal. Than as websites increased in numbers Google pagerank democratic logarithm-thing-a-mer-bob took its place and gave us all what we wanted - relevant information. But lately, I personally hate Google — I rarely go 3 pages deep into it and rarely find what I want.

I have a hunch, a gut feeling of sorts, that search engines of the future (5 years from now) will resemble more like Facebook in the sense that the results shown to you when you search will be tailored to your likes and dislikes, but also to the likes and dislikes of those you hold close in your circle of influence. Think about it. People tend to hang around those who they have something in common with. Now imagine — a search engine (or socialengine as I’ll call it) that will know what you and your friends have in common and fetch relevant content to match it. Oh la la, tres sexy! Rawr!

Update: Here is an interesting article about what I just talked about check it here