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Can Facebook Help Keep Live Search Afloat?October 7th, 2008 at 7:30 pmSource:TechCrunch Facebook’s integration of Microsoft’s Live Search raises two main questions: first, how does Facebook stand to benefit? And second, how does Microsoft? To answer these questions, we must recognize that each company faces its own type of problem and, therefore, stands to benefit uniquely. Facebook and social networks in general still struggle to prove that they can monetize their vast inventory of pages effectively. When Facebook users browse their friends’ profiles, they tend to pay little or no attention to advertisements - even when those ads reference friends or target the users’ particular interests. In contrast, web searchers are generally more attentive to advertising because they are actually seeking information about the things being advertised. Therefore, adding a dose of search to Facebook should lift overall returns on the site’s advertising efforts. |
