Facebook’s battle to take on Google as the web’s search platform, is taking a bigger shape today. Similar to how Google throws up an information panel linked to Wikipedia while searching, Facebook is also testing a similar panel, powered by Wikipedia.
This new updated version of Facebook Search displays factual information when users search for topics like public figures, places and interests — like movies and TV shows. So for example, if you are searching for a sports star, along with the usual search results that you get, Facebook will also throw up an information panel sourced from Wikipedia or other publicly available sources, in a format that is almost similar to Google’s.
So the idea here points towards keeping users on Facebook for a longer time. This info panel that is displayed, does not take users out of the platform, but is instead displayed in a side panel next to the search results.
It could also act as a potent fact-checking tool, wherein you can easily verify information from the panel on the right, in case there are posts/content that are not factually correct. So for example, as we searched for Donald Trump, we could see a factually correct info panel on the right, with user-generated content in the middle. You can easily verify the two to see if the content holds true.
The addition is very similar to Google’s Knowledge Panels, which it launched back in 2012, and are also largely populated by Wikipedia info. Knowledge Panel listings can serve various purposes, including providing contextual insight, keeping users on platform for longer, and – for those that have them – adding more authority to your presence.
Facebook’s link-up with Wikipedia isn’t all new though. If you’d have noticed, while searching for a public figure on Facebook, if there is no official page found, Facebook redirects to a Wikipedia info-laden page, or other publicly available information page.
