Man versus the Machine
Google and Facebook have been squaring up to each other for about ten years and it’s interesting to see how this competition influences their evolution.
They each have a fundamentally different point of departure. Google is a search engine dabbling in social media, Facebook is a social media platform dabbling in search.
Google relies on its algorithms, it has a completely data driven approach. Facebook on the other hand relies on curatorship, wherein people who are networking are creating and managing the content.
But as time goes by, Google is looking more and more at how people are consuming information to determine what they might find useful. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is all about manipulating the algorithm to surface your content first and Google is in the unenviable position of trying to find the most relevant information for their digital consumers, rather than surfacing the content from organisations with the biggest SEO budget.
Google is now looking beyond metadata, traffic and links to how digital curators manage information during the social network process.
Facebook on the other hand, is looking at using the data it has around social networking to create a useful search facility based on what your friends are posting, reading, sharing, liking and commenting on. Facebook is partially owned by Microsoft and so it has more than a vested interest in enhancing it’s search engine Bing as well as the social and search functionality in its M365 modern workplace environment.
Facebook is betting on human curatorship to move towards becoming the ubiquitous application that we turn to as our portal and digital workplace to the digital world. Google, in turn, is looking to enhancing its algorithm using behavioural data to enhance its value to the user.
Enter Bing with its AI.
This has shaken Google’s outright leadership in the search engine race because websites cater more to Google’s algorithm, Google will display more relevant results for target customers than Bing. Google can continue to deliver search results that are more relevant than Bing’s.
But, with Bing’s AI and ChatGPT chatbot that can assist you with complex search queries.
It’s difficult to gauge the quality of results for the billions of possible search terms out there, though, Google and Bing both meet the needs of the average user. Both search engines allow you to search for text, videos, images, news and even popular shopping websites. Bing will often summarize text from multiple sources if you ask a yes or no question. Google will attempt to do the same thing, but its response only ever includes a single source.
For example, you can use it to find matching pieces of furniture or compare various products from a certain standpoint with Bing AI. With traditional search, you’d need to perform multiple individual searches and do your own research.
It’s unlikely that Bing can become the top search engine globally. This is largely because Google pays billions of dollars to keep its position as the default search engine on many devices.
We also know that the company mandates the installation of Google Mobile Services, Chrome, and other apps on virtually all Android phones. Microsoft, uses Bing as the default search engine on Windows and the Edge web browser. Microsoft hasn’t tried to make it the default search engine for rival operating systems and web browsers. Users can change their default search engine but most people simply do not venture into the settings menu.
Only time will tell who comes out tops in that race.
