I don’t think the real question is whether Facebook wants to create a high-quality search product that can beat Google or if it is capable of doing so. The answer to both of these questions is likely to be a resounding yes; the real question, in my opinion, is whether Facebook can create a search product that they can get users to adopt?

Yahoo failed in that attempt, despite its huge captive audience; Bing has hardly succeeded despite the $100 million or so of marketing spend that it was rumored to have blown away upon launch; and then there have been any number of pretenders, so-called Google-killers that have barely left a scratch on Google’s dominance.  What can Facebook do to ensure that its search venture- if and when it materializes- doesn’t befall the same fate?

I feel Facebook has to forget about users turning to Facebook as a destination site for search. I seriously doubt if users will be going to Facebook with the intention to search and find information about anything other than people/ companies.

Assuming that their search technology- ie. the relevance of results- can match or beat that of Google (which in itself is quite an ask), Facebook’s hope lies in the large base of publishers who use their social plug-ins on their own websites. These publishers could be incentivized to use the Facebook search on their websites; and if the experience and results are good, we could begin to see greater adoption.

Overall, I think that a critical determinant of Facebook’s success in search will be the distribution of their search engine on other sites, a la, Google Custom Search Engine, and a contextual advertising platform for publishers, a la Google Adsense.