How will profile searches impact Facebook?

Facebook recently announced:

“Starting today, we are making limited public search listings available to people who are not logged in to Facebook. We're expanding search so that people can see which of their friends are on Facebook more easily. The public search listing contains less information than someone could find right after signing up anyway, so we're not exposing any new information, and you have complete control over your public search listing.”

The decision (as announced) at face value is aimed at letting people search for friends who are on Facebook. It appears to be a logical enhancement of Facebook functionality. But, the ability to search for friends has always been available to registered users. Any user seriously interested in connecting with friends would not mind registering on Facebook at all.

So, why this sudden change of policy permitting (unregistered) users not logged in to search users. What are the other implications of this decision? I have a simple (but, speculative) explanation for this decision.

A recent Online Publishers Association report clearly indicates trends in Internet traffic. The report has shown online traffic to be shifting away from commerce and communications sites to social networking and media sites. Further, users on social networking and media sites spend time viewing other users’ profiles to leverage the possibility of connecting with other users who share interests.

Thus, the opportunity to increase page views might have prompted Facebook into offering the public search listing feature. The objective very well might have been to improve stickiness. Another reason could be to increase conversions. Afterall, a casual visitor is more likely to register if he or she finds another friend or buddy to be a user of Facebook and wants to connect with that person.

So, Facebook seems to have taken a leaf out of the MySpace book. Needless to say this is a step in the right direction. The functionality should have been made available a long time ago.

The decision clearly indicates Facebook is no longer a niche social networking site focusing on the student community, but a mainstream player. It is definitely going to be interesting to watch the “social networking showdown” between MySpace and Facebook over the next few months.