IndustrySearch vs. Social: The 50 Shades of Gray in Online Information Retrieval

Search vs. Social: The 50 Shades of Gray in Online Information Retrieval

Those who posit Facebook with improved search poses a genuine threat to Google’s search dominance are painting a broad picture with a narrow brush. Users utilize search universally while turning to social in certain specific contextual situations.

Facebook is reportedly working on vastly improving what has long been poor search functionality on their ubiquitous social network. Even given the $15 billion dollars at stake in search advertising, Facebook doesn’t seem interested in diving headfirst into battling Google by indexing the web.

News of an improved Facebook search engine led the tech industry to wonder aloud if Facebook – despite employing few traditional search engineers – could spell a genuine threat to Google’s global search dominance with vastly improved search functionality. One survey also revealed that users are cool to the idea of a Facebook search engine to rival Google’s.

The question itself – whether a Facebook with improved search poses a genuine threat to Google’s online search dominance – presupposes, either implicitly or by implication, that online information retrieval is an either/or:

  • Either Facebook (social) triumphs as the medium consumers turn to for online information retrieval or Google (search) does.

This assumption characterizes user information retrieval behaviors as black and white when in reality they are many shades of gray. Users’ information retrieval habits are contextual – they vary based on the context of what the user is searching for and, in turn, the platforms they use. With these assumptions in hand, we’d like to challenge the convention and postulate that Facebook won’t be replacing Google any time soon.

Surveying How Users Retrieve Information Online

To test this assumption and gauge user behaviors, we surveyed a group of web users to determine how often they turn to social and search platforms for their online information needs. While our sample size of 100 won’t win any academic research awards, it should give us a sense of a user’s online information retrieval behaviors.

In a series of information retrieval situations, users were asked to indicate the frequency in which they turned to social (e.g., Facebook) and to online search (e.g., Google). For example, we asked:

For each of the following, indicate the frequency you turn to online search (e.g. Google) versus a social network (e.g. Facebook):

1. News/Current Events?

Search:

Always
Often
Rarely
Never

Social:

Always
Often
Rarely
Never

Note that to measure their online information habits on search and social, users were queried about the frequency they turn to each independent of each other. For example, for content discovery, they could indicate they use search “often” and social “often” as well.

We asked users to indicate the frequency they turn to social and search in a number of retrieval scenarios, including:

  • News/Current Events
  • Shopping/Product Research
  • General Information Retrieval (e.g., “height of the empire state building”)
  • Entertainment/Local Events (e.g., restaurant recommendations, concerts, cultural events…)
  • Job Search/Careers
  • Discussion (talk about current events)
  • Content Discovery (music, TV, movies…)

Users Overwhelmingly Turn to Search; Leverage Social in Specific Contexts

information-retrieval-frequency-facebook-v-google-search

Looking at the responses, what immediately jumps out is that while search is the medium users turn to in nearly all information retrieval scenarios, with over 85 percent frequency in 6 out of 7 situations, there are specific contexts in which users will turn to social as well.

Given that the core purpose of social networks is to communicate with others, it isn’t surprising that Discussion is the scenario in which users turn to social more often than search, but Content Discovery and Local Entertainment are also areas in which social media is strongly leveraged, with 51 percent and 42 percent frequency, respectively.

Interestingly, while we have long been told social will be huge for shopping (presumably because your friends’ purchase recommendations are more valuable than impersonal search listings), shopping is actually the scenario in which users use social networks the least, at 15 percent.

Likewise, we might expect to see a large percentage of users heavily leveraging their social networks in a job search but only 18 percent of respondents to social “always” or “often” turn.

A Narrow Solution to a Broad Problem

Time will tell if social is in fact the better option in many of these information retrieval scenarios, and the reason users have not yet turned to social is because behaviors have not yet changed.

However, I think the way to interpret the data and part of the reason why users have not overwhelmingly turned to social in many of the scenarios we have been told they will do so in droves, is because social as a dominant information retrieval medium is a situation where theory actually differs significantly from practice.

The theory put forth is that social will start to replace search in many scenarios: Our friends’ shopping recommendations will be so meaningful in making purchase decisions it will start to trump search, it will be significant in a job search, etc. In practice, social may in fact be a narrow solution to what is often a broad problem.

According to Facebook, the average user has 190 friends. From the outset the addressable audience is limited, and becomes even more so when we consider the percentage of friends who may be able to address a specific shopping recommendation request or help with a specific job search.

A narrow solution to what is often a broad problem.

(It has been reported that Facebook will start to take secondary connections into account should they in fact update their search functionality. That could mean when you search for Facebook for [iphone case] you could end up with a recommendation from a non-primary friend. But in that case how would that differ from reading an Amazon review from a total stranger?)

buy-iphone-case-facebook-google

Painting With A Pencil

There is no question social is a significant part of a user’s online discussion activities and their sharing and discovery of content online. But our data suggests that those who posit social will take over across all information retrieval scenarios are painting a broad picture with a narrow brush by extending social beyond its core uses – discussion, content discovery and local entertainment discovery – and misapplying it to nearly everything we do online.

Time will tell, but for now, users utilize search universally while turning to social in certain specific contextual situations.

Resources

The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

whitepaper | Analytics The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

8m
Data Analytics in Marketing

whitepaper | Analytics Data Analytics in Marketing

10m
The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

whitepaper | Digital Marketing The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

1y
Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

whitepaper | Digital Marketing Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

1y