Bing has managed to get greater access to real time feeds from Facebook than its arch rival, Google. Both firms have secured status updates from the site, which are considered to be hugely valuable as they provide information that is not available anywhere else; but it has transpired that Bing has access to personal Facebook profiles that have been set to be seen by ‘everyone’, whereas Google only has access to public pages – i.e., Facebook fan pages.
The Battle For Real Time Search
The battle for gaining access to real time information has been increasing in ferocity over recent months, and Facebook, along with Twitter, have by far the highest quantity. The competition is being closely watched by the search engine optimisation community.
Bing was first to get a foot in the real time door, securing a Twitter and Facebook update deal on the 21st October. On the same day Google struck a deal for Twitter information – but crucially, no Facebook deal was struck. Bing lead the competition, but was soon equalled by Google when they did a deal which gave them access to Facebook too. Google also secured Myspace updates, but this is a minor advantage in comparison with Facebook and Twitter.
Personal Facebook Status Updates
While the two giants of search may seem evenly matched, the fact that Bing has access to personal status updates and Google doesn’t, is significant. Having access to fan pages, which are often simply corporate pages, is arguably nowhere near as valuable as the rich, dynamic – and ‘real’ – information that is promised by personal Facebook status updates.
Bing Noses Ahead Of Google
As it stands, Google has not yet started indexing fan pages, and personal Facebook updates have not yet been integrated into Bing. But Bing has been extremely pro-active in gaining access to this valuable data, and many will see this as the kind of behaviour normally associated with leading corporations, rather than ones that are playing catch-up. As suggested by a previous Bing post in this blog, one angle that Bing could have in stealing a lead on Google could well be real time – and ensuring that it leads the way in this important and expanding area of search.
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