Facebook announced a "press event" Tuesday to reveal what they've been building. Experts speculate that it could be a search engine. Does this mean trouble for Google?
Though Facebook lost out on 6 million customers in the UK, it still remains one of the world's leading social-networking site. The company recently announced a press event that would reveal a new product of Facebook. The company has already invited bloggers and journalists to "come see what we're building."
Experts predict that it could be a new search-engine.
"If Facebook would decide to become serious about search, it would be in a position to give Google a run for its money," said Karsten Weide, an analyst with IDC, a financial research company.
Shares of Facebook have begun to rise with the announcement from the company. At first, speculations had it that it could be Facebook's own smartphone but company CEO Mark Mark Zuckerberg shot down all such rumors.
"It is so clearly the wrong strategy for us," Zuckerberg said at a September technology conference in his first public interview after Facebook's May initial public offering. "It doesn't move the needle for us."
At a press conference sponsopred by TechCrunch, Zuckerberg did hint that Facebook might be looking at a search option and how it would work.
"I think search engines are really evolving to give you a set of answers, not just 'type in something and show me some relevant stuff', but I have this specific question, answer this question for me,"' he said. "When you think about it from that perspective, Facebook is pretty uniquely positioned to answer the questions people have."
"Search, I would say, is a very high priority for Facebook," Colin Sebastian, an analyst for Robert W. Baird & Co. said. "Facebook has this incredible treasure trove of unstructured data on the site."
