Here's why Facebook will be your search engine soon

Is Google in danger of losing the limelight?

According to a global survey by digital marketing agency Greenlight, Facebook could potentially capture close to a quarter of the Search market were it to launch its own search engine tomorrow, making it the second most utilised search engine in every major market except for China, Japan, and Russia, where it would occupy an uncontested third place.

Here's more from Greenlight:

CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear that Facebook has every intention of giving Google a run for its money by marrying social networking with one of the most valuable areas of the technology industry: Search.

The Search market represents a “big opportunity” that Facebook is uniquely positioned to address, said Zuckerberg at a tech industry conference in San Francisco earlier this week.

What’s more, the results from Greenlight’s survey also showed Facebook could increase its share to 50 per cent within just a few years. However, the survey also indicated Google+ has been more successful than most may have initially speculated and as such, the agency concludes Google and Facebook will both be front and centre in ‘Social Search’.

The survey also asked respondents if they clicked on advertisements or sponsored listings in Facebook. The alarming response was that 44 per cent answered ‘never’.

Greenlight surveyed 500 people - students, law enforcement professionals, medical staff, accountants, lawyers, the unemployed, and everyone in between, to ascertain how they engage with online advertising, search engines, and social networks, in order to glean insight into how consumers engage with marketers today, and formulate views on what the future might hold.

The survey revealed 5 per cent would 'definitely' use a future Facebook search engine if the firm were to launch one to rival Google's. The other extreme, those categorically saying they simply would not use a future Facebook search engine, totalled 26 per cent of all respondents.

Those responding in the 'Definitely' and 'Probably' camps totalled 17 per cent. Those responding 'No' and 'Probably not', totalled 48 per cent.