This post was originally published in two parts at SearchEngineWatch on April 26, 2010 and May 24, 2010.

The number of searches conducted on Facebook has been surging over the past year, more than doubling to 647 Million searches in the US as of March. While their numbers still pale in comparison to the 10.5 billion searches generated on Google during the same month, Facebook’s footprint in search is significant enough that many in the search community are beginning to sit up and take notice. I continue to hear more and more people ask: Is Facebook on its way to becoming a serious player in the search marketplace?

To evaluate its potential, it is illustrative to consider how search has evolved to the current point in time. Historically, there are 3 primary factors that coalesce to drive change in the evolution of an emerging market: Technology, Marketing, and Consumer Behavior. As each of these factors evolves over time, new developments tend to occur in a symbiotic fashion.

To use a non-internet example as reference, think about Henry Ford’s application of the assembly line to automobile manufacturing (Technology) and the evolving relationship with both Marketing and Consumer Behavior in the United States. Cars begin to be mass produced (Technology), driving down the price for entry and allowing even average citizens the opportunity to become owners and begin driving everywhere possible (Consumer Behavior). In order to address the driving demand, more and better roads/highways are built across the country, and as a result billboards and road side gas stations/shopping begin to pop up (Marketing), which in turn creates more demand, fueling further investments in technology, lowering the price to the consumer even further to bring new consumers into the market. At this point, our driving culture truly begins to take shape and evolve into our relationship with our cars that we have today. The circular nature of these factors influencing one another becomes apparent.

A similar type of evolution can be seen when we look back at the maturation of the search marketplace. The internet becomes widely available in the 1990s and consumers hit the web to consume information, interact socially, shop, and generally run their lives online. As this behavior progressed, marketers of all kinds begin to spend dollars online. Although search engines cropped up in the early days, the quality of results simply weren’t good enough in the beginning to drive people to use search as their main channel for internet navigation, and “portals” became the primary channel for exploration. It’s not surprising given the early quality of results that we tended to search on more obtuse terms such as “shoes” or “news,” which had very little specificity.

With the launching of Google’s PageRank technology, incredibly relevant search results launched a revolution in both marketing and consumer behavior that has forever changed our economic and behavioral landscape. Since this technology pioneered by Google generated more relevant results, searchers began to feel comfortable with extending the length of their search phrases, in effect being more specific about their needs. On top of this developing consumer behavior, this evolution of specificity has encouraged innovation from marketers en masse. Marketer strategy continues to improve with well researched paid search campaigns and increasingly more optimized landing pages to accommodate these longer phrases.

You’ll notice that the average number of words per search in the United States in March was nearly 3.2 words and it has been growing for some time. This is a far cry from our original limitations of “shoes” in order to now search for and find a pair of “nike air jordans.”

What this trend illustrates is that as the technology and sophistication of search results gain, consumers have learned to adapt their searching behavior to reflect the increased specificity the results will convey. This change in behavior enables them to inch closer to a result that reflects the true, original intent of their search. But increasingly there is new information available on the web -- especially as it relates to one’s social graph --that offers potential for even greater specificity; one that filters results through the people, and not just the pages, of highest relevance to you.

As we look at the chart below, we will notice that the average number of words per search at the top search properties has been steadily increasing over the past two years while searches on Facebook contain only two words on average, a trend has not increased in any meaningful way over the past two years. Perhaps these numbers should not be too surprising given that the majority of searches on Facebook are people searches – first and last name. But if you delve a bit deeper into the list of top searches on Facebook, beyond the “first name, last name” searches, you will see that people are beginning to search on more traditional search topics, things like “games,” “shoes,” and “iPad.”

In other words, non-people related searching on Facebook looks somewhat similar to the types of searching we saw during the early evolution of the search engines. If these are the same people who are typing 3+ word searches on Google and Bing, why are they still relying on such rudimentary search terms on Facebook? I think the simple answer is that when people are unfamiliar with a search experience, they prefer to dip their toe into the pool rather than dive in head first. Until they get a better sense of how the engine will respond to their requests, they will continue to keep it simple.

But the fact that we are seeing the first real signs of a burgeoning “traditional” search experience bodes well for the future potential of Facebook as a search engine. I anticipate that we will see this type of consumer behavior evolve along the same lines of traditional search as more dollars flow towards social media.

It will also require further development of the search technology on the part of Facebook. The true promise of traditional search on a social platform like Facebook is the ability to apply a social filter to search results. When I search for “shoes,” I want to see which of my friends are fans of Nike, or which ones “liked” that pair of Pumas being sold on Amazon, or which ones raved on their newsfeed about their comfortable new running shoes. For now there are some options allowing for broad matches to Friend & Everyone posts, but much more can be done.

Facebook must improve their ability to relate your search results, on the first page, to you as an individual. Search engine algorithms do their best to deliver you relevant results based on all of the people that searched on similar terms as you, but Facebook has the unique position with which to analyze your personal relationships and further differentiate results. The Facebook display advertising targeting features are quite impressive, considering factors such as your latest updates, your “likes” and those of your friends…but its ascension as a search property will be directly impacted by its ability to do this same sort of qualitative analysis of you and your entire circle and customizing the search results accordingly. Being that they partner with Bing in order to deliver the web search results, it puts Bing in a strong position from which to innovate using an incredibly large and yet closely personal data set. My ideal Facebook search result page format would be universal in nature, with a collection of the most relevant internal Facebook information combined with appropriately filtered external web results.

As consumers become more comfortable with an inherently social search experience, their search behavior is likely to evolve with it. We will see the average length of their search phrases increase, and it will be driven by both technology innovation and more relevant marketer content before these consumers make the jump.

We are still very early in the evolution of social search, but the nascent search behaviors we see developing on Facebook right now suggest it not only has the potential to become a viable search engine, but in fact has a chance to help redefine the way we currently think of search. The social filter can provide a new layer of meaning to search results, but it will be a matter of technology, marketing, and consumer behavior evolving until we get a true sense of what the future of social search will bring.

comScore will publicly release May qSearch data tomorrow, tracking the market share of all the major search players in the industry. We have been publishing search reports since 2003 and have watched (and tracked) many changes in the industry as it has grown to dominate the digital advertising space.

In July 2007, comScore revamped search measurement with the introduction of qSearch 2.0, which expanded the view of search beyond the traditional search sections to include searches at retailers, travel sites, directories, etc… anywhere that a user might submit a search. qSearch 2.0 captured the broad adoption of search technology throughout the web to improve the user experience.

Since that time, we’ve seen a wave of change across the web that has changed the very nature of a web page, from an object that is requested and delivered, to one that is a live platform that can integrate content from many sources. And search has changed along with it…

The recent innovation deployed by a number of search engines is to go beyond simply providing a search box along with content, but to weave their search engines into the user experience.

There are at least two reasons they’re doing this. Search can be used as a powerful contextual content discovery technology. By providing search results that are highly relevant to the content being consumed by a user, properties like, MSN and Yahoo! can provide intuitive and convenient content discovery experiences. Also, by providing search results in context across their network, those sites are able to leverage the size of their audience to expose more users to their search services.

Traditionally, the industry has thought about a “search” event as a submission of a query that subsequently presents a set of results to a user. comScore’s definition of search requires that the user be presented with search results and be able to completely change or refine their search directly from the result page. This encompasses the traditional “text box” query, as is the case with the major search engines’ main search entry point.

Some context-driven search experiences also meet comScore’s current criteria for qualifying as a search and are therefore counted in qSearch market share reporting. At the same time, comScore recognizes that these are inherently different experiences compared to traditional web search queries. And because context-driven searches are sometimes monetized at different rates than traditional searches, we believe it is important to provide the marketplace with visibility into how they are contributing to search share. For this reason, we will continue to explicitly quantify context-driven search volume in our monthly release notes to clients.

That said, the continued evolution of search and emerging innovations in how it is used to enhance user experience, calls for a thoughtful review of how we classify various types of searches, count them and report them. We want to ensure that we provide comprehensive and flexible measurement that meets the needs of the various constituencies in the digital marketplace. As our thinking evolves, we will include relevant stakeholders in the discussion and clearly communicate our thinking and rationale to the marketplace. While we will maintain the current method through the end of the second quarter to avoid reporting disruptions, we will aim to implement proposed revisions in the third quarter, ideally starting with the release of July data in the first half of August. Stay tuned to the comScore blog to find out more in the coming weeks.

Well, the 2010 World Cup is finally upon us as people across the globe eagerly anticipate the kick-off for the opening games. And while excitement will soon reach a fever pitch, the anticipation has clearly been mounting for the past few months. One illustration of this building excitement has been the global traffic to FIFA.com during May, which can be seen below. In just one month, global Internet penetration of FIFA.com doubled from 0.11% to 0.21%. It is sure to jump substantially higher as the official event gets underway.

What’s also interesting is which regions of the world appear to be demonstrating their excitement for the event, if we use visitation to FIFA.com as a proxy. While every global region will have representation and millions upon millions of fans following, Latin America and Middle East-Africa showed the highest relative visitation to FIFA.com in the month leading up to the event. While Latin America accounted for just 9% of the total global Internet audience in May, it contributed an astounding 39% of the audience to FIFA.com. Middle East-Africa, just 6 percent of the global Internet audience, represented 12% of the FIFA.com audience.

comScore will be following these and other global Internet trends for the 2010 World Cup, so come visit the comScore Voices blog or @comscore for additional updates!

Last week was a big week in the ever-evolving world of mobile as Apple introduced the iPhone 4, its highly anticipated next generation of the popular mobile device. In the fiercely competitive and fast-growing smartphone market, the successful launch of a new product represents the opportunity to capture market share. Apple, like other manufacturers and platforms within the smartphone market, must rely heavily on brand awareness and positive word-of-mouth to sustain upward momentum in its quest for market share.

Just how popular have smartphones become? According to data from comScore MobiLens, smartphone penetration in the U.S. has grown from 11 percent of mobile subscribers in April 2009 to more than 20 percent in April 2010 -- nearly double in just one year. The total number of smartphone subscribers now totals more than 48 million.

The biggest player in the smartphone market remains RIM with its popular Blackberry devices, currently owning more than 40 percent share of smartphone subscribers. Apple holds a firm grip on the #2 position with 25 percent share of mobile subscribers, up from 20 percent in April 2009. Despite gaining share over the long term, however, Apple’s market share has stabilized at 25 percent in recent months – perhaps the result of consumers waiting in anticipation of the new model. With the iPhone 4 announcement, we should expect to see Apple’s market share increase as it did with the introduction of previous models.

While iPhone was the talk of the week, however, Google’s Android platform has been the pace-setter in the smartphone market over the past several months. In April, Android captured 12 percent market share, up from just 3 percent 6 months ago. Android continues to propel itself closer to the #3 spot (currently held by Microsoft at 15 percent), and if it continues to grow at this rate it could seize that position within the next few months.

It will be particularly interesting to watch how the next few months play out in the smartphone market with Android continuing its fast ascent while the iPhone 4 makes a big push. Stay tuned for more on the smartphone market as it develops…

Earlier this week Alejandro Fosk, senior vice president of comScore Latin America, presented the State of the Internet in Latin America, which provided a look at recent region and market trends in this dynamic and growing part of the world.

Although the webinar was presented in Spanish, we wanted to offer those of you who don’t speak the language an opportunity to download the presentation in English as well as Spanish.

We also wanted to provide a brief summary of some of the highlights of the data in this blog post.

In April 2010, Latin America accounted for 8 percent of the total global online population. Although this represents a relatively small portion of the world’s online audience, Latin America was the fastest-growing region during the past year – climbing 22 percent from April 2009 – as an increase in broadband penetration helped drive more people online. Latin Americans also displayed strong online engagement, averaging 27 hours online during April, consuming more than 2,000 pages of content and frequenting the Internet an average of 52 times during the month. Latin Americans’ reported the highest search intensity out of the five global regions, with an average searcher performing 141 queries a month.

A look across the individual markets in the region that comScore currently reports revealed that all markets experienced a double-digit online population increase during the past year. Brazil, the region’s largest market, grew 19 percent to reach 35.3 million users, while Mexico experienced a 20-percent increase to 15.7 million users. Colombia witnessed the strongest growth with its audience surging 37 percent to reach 10.8 million people, while Argentina climbed 22 percent to 12.7 million users.

From Mexico to Chile, we expect Internet usage in the region to continue to grow for the foreseeable future, presenting local and global brands with the opportunity to reach and engage these active, online audiences. Stay tuned for more insights into Latin America throughout the coming months as comScore continues to provide insights into digital media consumption across the globe.

With World Cup play well underway, fans across the globe are paying close attention to their national teams and watching highly-anticipated matches between the best squads in the world. On Friday, June 11, the official opening day of the World Cup, global Internet penetration of FIFA.com reached its highest level thus far, with 7.6 million unique visitors, or 1.2% of the global Internet audience, visiting the site as fans checked out the schedules of the early round matches.

Geographical differences in visitation to FIFA.com suggest varying levels of interest in the World Cup depending on one’s corner of the globe. The Middle East-Africa (2.5% penetration) and Latin America (2.3% penetration) exhibited the highest relative visitation to FIFA.com, well outpacing the global average of 1.2%. Europe followed with 1.3% penetration, while North America (1.0% penetration) and Asia Pacific (0.5% penetration) ranked below the global average. In absolute terms, Europe accounted for the greatest number of FIFA.com visitors on opening day at 2.6 million.

One of the highest profile matches of opening weekend was the USA vs. England game, which ended in a draw (to the dismay of many England fans). However, both nations had their heaviest visitation to FIFA.com on the opening day of the tournament, which was a Friday workday, one day prior to their actual game, which was played on Saturday June 12. Although the U.S. had more absolute traffic to the site with 1.3 million visitors on June 11, (0.9% of total Internet audience), the U.K. showed higher site reach at 2.1%, or about 538,000 visitors.

As teams face elimination and matches continue to intensify, we expect to see regional and country-specific visitation to FIFA.com to reflect the success of local teams. For continued coverage of Internet trends throughout the 2010 World Cup, visit the comScore Voices blog or @comscore for additional updates!