Facebook application about pages visible to search engines
Posted on October 22nd 2007 in Social Networking, SEO & SEM
It seems Facebook is continuing to open its content for the general public. After making user profiles visible to the general public (and search engines), Facebook applications will soon be available also, or rather the about pages for applications. These application about pages will be visible to the search engines which means that users will be able to use search engines to find Facebook apps. Logged out users will be able to read reviews and discussion boards so they can get the full picture of what the application has to offer. Privacy will be respected, so the pages will only show first names for all users, and profile pictures only if the user/developer has allowed this in their private security settings. Users who are not logged in on Facebook will only be able to view content on the about pages.
According to the post on Facebook Developers, the goal of this changes is to make developers’ applications more visible to the public so users can find applications they love using, and gain more potential users who’ll try the apps. Application about pages should appear in the search results of search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Live and ASK in the next couple of days.
I am not sure visitors will search applications “they love using” on search engines. If they love using them, it’s probably because they already use Facebook regularly. Do they really need to look for Facebook applications in places other than Facebook? The new change will be more beneficial in terms of search engine marketing (SEO in particular). The developer company or individual developer will benefit by getting found on the search engine through such an authoritative site or page. A link from the about page to another site (developer’s blog or home site) would be very valuable in that case. With Google (working on its own social network) and other search engines making attempts on getting more exposure on Facebook, the “SE visible” application about pages are about to take on a very significant role. Developing applications and a presence on Facebook is becoming an important Internet marketing ingredient for companies, and as such an important part of SEO in the future.
