Photo courtesy of TechCrunch.com

On January 15^th Facebook announced that it was releasing Graph Search, an effort by the company to provide users with more natural search results that are completely integrated with their social ecosystem. The basic function of Graph Search is to show users search results based on their Facebook friends and friends of friends.

Image Source: mashable.com/2010/09/28/social-media-conversion-science

It is widely known that social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+ are extremely popular. Now, it’s time to capitalize on that popularity and find ways to engage audiences on these platforms and convert prospects into sales. However, definitions of social conversion will differ based on firm, program, and strategic objective, and it’s important to find the definition that’s right for you.

Image Credit: Search Engine Land

To build upon their “Bing Is For Doing” philosophy, America’s second largest search engine has decided that it will follow in Google’s footsteps and provide social integration.  More information about the merger of social and search platforms across the web can be found in a previous 90blog post.  Bing will attempt to do what Google has decided against and use Facebook (among other social networking sites) as its primary tool to get answers for its users.  As Bing says, “Recent attempts at social search haven’t unlocked the full potential of tapping our social networks.”  Through an integrated format called the Sidebar, users will be able to get the opinion of friends, family, and colleagues online, much as you would in person.

While it’s nearly impossible to predict the future of the ever changing web, many experts are expecting that combining social and search will be the next big trend.  Google has already established itself as the pioneer in this field by combining Google Search and Google+; however, Google isn’t the only web giant interested in bringing the two tactics together.  It is rumored that Facebook is developing a search engine that combines a user’s location and friends’ interests to provide search query results.

Do constant Farmville posts litter your newsfeed? The viral, farming simulation game and its 32 million monthly users “buy cows” and “harvest crops” to achieve rankings against their friends and the Farmville community. The game introduced real currency where users could pay to enhance their virtual-farm’s animals and crops. Recently, a similar platform has emerged that’s not just fun and games.