In order to make it a reality, the social networking leader has engaged about two dozen Facebook engineers, and tapped former Google engineer named Lars Rasmussen, who is leading the team, say two people familiar with the project who did not want to be named because the company is in a quiet period ahead of its IPO.
Currently, Facebook users mainly search to find other people amongst their friend-circle, but sometimes to look up someone to friend. But in earnest, the goal, they say, is to help users better sift through the volume of content that members create on the site, such as status updates, and the articles, videos, and other information across the Web that people “like” using Facebook’s omnipresent thumbs-up button.
Describing it in detail, “Search, really functional and robust search, is sadly lacking within the Facebook interface,” Alitmeter Group digital advertising and media analyst Rebecca Lieb informed VentureBeat. “It is something that could have not only very tangible advertising benefits for Facebook, but also make Facebook a more compelling place for users.”
Photo credit: Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook
Facebook co-founder and CEO Zuckerberg indicated his company was working on modifying search last month, though it is not clear if he did so on purpose or accidentally. As you can see in the cropped image above, he posted a photograph of his desk at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park. On his laptop, you can see a giant white space across the top of his Facebook profile that looks like a search bar. Check out the full image on his profile: My desk.
Nevertheless, on an average, Facebook users already spend an aggregate of 10.5 billion minutes on the site daily. The company is considering everything it can do to keep users on its site, and of course new revenue sources as it works to go public next month.
Besides, it is funny how the two biggest Internet players are heading in opposite directions. Google is looking to make its search service more social, while Facebook is looking make its social service more searchable.