Mar
17th

Oneupweb Reviews: New Facebook Search Feature

Posted by Adam D on March 17, 2010 at 10:54 am

Today Facebook has released a subtle change to its search function, all in an effort to make connecting with friends, pages, groups, and events more intuitive.

When you begin typing a search query, you will see a drop down menu with suggestions from your network. But these suggestions are not limited to your direct network alone. If one of your friends is a fan of a business’s Fan Page, and Facebook deems that page relevant to your search, it will be suggested as well.

If you still haven’t found what you’re looking for (queue U2 chorus), you can navigate to the search results page by selecting See More Results from the bottom of the drop-down menu. Now I’ve tried this feature, and it appears to have been rolled out to most users; however, I did not see the “See More Results” option in the drop down menu yet.

So far, what’s not to like about the new search feature? It’s a more intuitive way to discover people, businesses, information, etc. on and around your network. My only fear is that this will someday become a method for promoted search suggestions. But then again as long as the ads are relevant to the search, (and not like some Weird Facebook Ads) then I suppose those could be welcomed by some too.

Official Oneupweb Review: Thumbs Up

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Mar
3rd

Skittles is one brand that we like to keep an eye on. The rainbow candy’s creators seem to have a good grasp on social media and cutting edge marketing techniques. It helps that the nature of their product allows them to create some unusual marketing campaigns. Today, let’s dive into the marketing angle Skittles has taken now.

You never know what to expect when you type in the URL www.skittles.com. A few months ago you would have been directed to the Wikipedia page for Skittles. But today we had a chance to “Experience the Rainbow,” and what an experience it was.

Not only was I encouraged to “Taste the Rainbow” as you might expect, but also to (and I quote), “Lace the Train Slow.”

The play on words didn’t stop there. There’s “Trace the Vain Bro,” “Encase the Faint Glow,” and “Chase the Vain Crow” to name a few.

It appears that Skittles has created these entertaining bits of content for users to share via social media. Skittles understands that having your customers help sell your product is the new business model. That’s because the use of search engines is waning in comparison to social search. Just last night I had a Facebook friend ask if anyone had ever ordered prescription glasses online. I told her yes, gave her the site URL, and now she plans on purchasing glasses there. People trust product recommendations from people within their social circle far more than from anywhere else.

To review the Skittles website alone would be shortsighted. And the pieces of content kind of freak me out. For example, this badly Photoshoped astronaut clown brings up some mixed emotions. (Primarily, my childhood fear of clowns and love for space exploration.)

By the time I was done scrolling through the Skittles site I wasn’t sure what to think. And as I scrolled, I realized you can’t reach the end of the site… just like a rainbow.

Instead of reviewing the website itself, let’s give our assessment of the overall Skittles marketing strategy:

Official Oneupweb Review: Oneup-Thumbs-Up

By observing online trends and planning accordingly, Skittles is a brand that understands where digital marketing is going.

Speaking of trends, earlier today we released a new white paper entitled Search Gone Wild, An Eye Tracking Study on Google’s Real-Time Results.

One trend we’ve seen is that traditional search engines are being used less and less, and social networks more and more. Just a few weeks ago Facebook flew by Yahoo in total number of unique visitors reported. Google even created its own social networking tool recently, Google Buzz, to get in on the action. Like Wayne Gretzky pointed out, you have to skate to where the puck is going, not where it’s at. And search is, and has been, going social.

Observing these trends, we here at Oneupweb say, “Follow the Trends Bro.” It’s time to experience the rainbow.

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Feb
25th

Google’s real-time search has been implemented for a couple months now but as of today this feature will include Facebook Page status updates in search results, as well as content from MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca.

Today we will introduce you to Google real-time search and review the newly added status updates from Facebook Pages.

noflash

If you are unfamiliar with Google’s real-time search, it’s basically search results that include content pulled from sites such as Twitter, FriendFeed, and now Facebook, as well as headlines from news sites and blog posts published just seconds before. This means the search results represent “real time,” more so than a website that is only updated once a month.

In order to view these real-time search results you will need to take a few steps.

First, go to Google and type in your desired search term:

1 Facebook Google Search

When you receive your search results click + Show options…

2 Facebook Google Search Results

Next, select Latest under Any time and you will begin to see real-time search results.

3 Latest

As you can see below you will get search results from Facebook as they become available.

4

Official Oneupweb Review: Oneup-Thumbs-Up

If you are an information addict like most of us at Oneupweb then you will love this feature. And since Google is now including content from Facebook, MySpace and other social networks, this feature just became a whole lot more comprehensive. Choose any subject you’re interested in and from there you can keep up on what’s happening in real time.

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