Blekko and Bing on Facebook Likes

Facebook Likes has brought a good deal of coverage for Bing’s integration into search results. Microsoft mentioned that Likes influence ranking and create more personalized search results over time. In Bing Search Summit held last week, Satya Nadella of Microsoft’s said that Microsoft is being somewhat cautious in its roll out so far.

On the contrary, Blekko, a search startup takes a much more aggressive approach to integrating the Social Graph data into search. The fascinating results of the Facebook Likes point toward a future where social data are as powerful as these influence on ranking as any factor.

There were illustrations showed for observation in relation to Bing, Blekko and the Facebook Likes. The data may not perfect but the corpus of Likes grows overtime which improves the overall experience. Companies and publishers will surely try the “Likes” and of course there will be Like-spam. Like-spam will be less effective and pervasive though than the traditional spam because it is not that easy to get lots of people in a network to “Like” sites through some manipulations of incentive. Coupons and deals may be possibly increasingly offered as quid pro quo for Likes.

Along with Bing and Blekko, the Likes and your networks could be powerful and represent an entirely new approach to ranking. Blekko on the other hand allows user to create a personal repository or directory of URLs by linking individual links which can be feed on Facebook. Blekko now gives users three options to search. These are through default web results, slashtags (human/expert curation) and Likes. The Social Graph API data gives Blekko a larger and more “accessible” story to tell as it tries to answer the “why” question for mainstream searchers. It is now easier for users to find sites which were recommended by friends.

For more SEO Tips and Updates, you can follow our professional SEO Company on Twitter and become a Fan on Facebook