Google released its own Facebook application, and yes it has everything to do with search. The application lets users use Google Search in a new way. All queries are added to a mini-feed so your web history is shared with other Facebook users. On a spearate page, the application showcases popular searches found by Facebook users. The application has been created using the Google AJAX Search API, the only search API Google left in business.

Well, great! I went to try it out, and here is what I got…

If you can’t see, it says:

Errors while loading page from application

There are still a few kinks Facebook and the makers of Google are trying to iron out. We appreciate your patience as we try to fix these issues. Your problem has been logged - if it persists, please come back in a few days. Thanks!

Well, too bad, since now I can’t see how the application behaves on real searches. I’ll have to come back to this in a couple of days time. Hopefully both Google and Facebook will get this sorted out. Interestingly enough, Google sites Yahoo for having failed with MyRank, a search algorithm Yahoo! tried to introduce in MyWeb 2.0, which takes into account the effect of social networking on search results. You can see all this in more detail here.

Apart from this being a useful search tool on Facebook, can this be something more than that? With a potential of over thirty million users, Facebook represents a great platform for experimenting with user behavior. As of yet, there is very little known (public) data on typical Facebook user behavior (what they search for, how they consume content, ad content in particular). If Google’s app gains momentum, Google will eventually end up with very useful information about Facebook user search behavior. Then come paid search ads, and let’s not forget Facebook has been very successfully ported to the mobile platform, and Google is already waist deep in mobile advertising. Hm, interesting…

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