Google has clearly dominated the world of internet search for quite a while; however other search engines like Bing aren’t giving up their chase to earn some of those Google searchers.  Recently, Bing announced that they are incorporating Facebook data into their search results in what is being called the most personal and actionable social search to date. This is the biggest move made by Bing to rise up to the popularity of Google’s domination of the internet search industry.

So how does it work? When a user activates Facebook results and then searches for something in Bing, their first page results will include a more personal touch. Users will see results that come from their Facebook friends’ Likes. For example, if you are searching for a hotel in Arizona and you have a friend that has Liked it, it will show up on your first page results. Thinking of vacationing in Germany? Do a search in Bing for Frankfurt, and your results will include names of people on your friend list who live near this area.

The Bing toolbar includes a universal Like button so that users are able to Like a web page even if it is not equipped with the Facebook plug in that enables likes all over the web.  The user must be logged into Facebook as well as Bing to see the Like connections as well as to Like a webpage of their choice.

This does not mean that content has lost importance in search results. Quite the contrary, a site that has great content is much more likely to be Liked by a large number of readers than one with mediocre content. Having a good variety of content types will be more important now as well. Not just blog posts, but also images, audio and video will engage users and move them to Like a page on Facebook helping that page be found by their friends through Bing search.

Bing’s Facebook connection and the recently released Google +1, make one thing clear, the social media influence on search is no fad. It’s here to stay and will continue to be more and more an important part of the internet user’s experience.