Will social media eventually be integrated with the major search engines into one version of search engine marketing? There have been questions and doubt as to whether the combination of the two will ever evolve as an extensive adaptation of their social search technology.
But the popularity of Facebook may speed up the integration process with its report of a 10% gain of around 436 million queries in the latest February search query report while other comparable sites showed a net loss.
Facebook changed the layout design of their home page by moving the search box from the right hand side to the middle of the header. By making the box more visible near announcements and social network updates, it greatly increased Facebook's latest queries report.
While Facebook continues to grow its popularity from 436 million searches in the latest report, it is still very small compared to Google's billions of queries. But it is still a significant leap for Facebook and forecasts more possible growth in their user base. Advertisers may consider using PPC advertising on Facebook's web search instead of social media marketing campaigns, especially since the fan page material and brand profiles are not considered reliable as ROI data due to problems tracking conversions.
Although growth for Facebook also reflects BING's increase, it is not included in BING s total market share. But Microsoft's search engine technology runs Facebooks web search--their AdCentre platform (the MS version of AdWords) provides paid ads in search results. So the possibility of search engine partnership deals with Microsoft and BING may happen instead of Yahoo or other search engines.