Social networking giant, Facebook and Russian search engine giant Yandex have signed an agreement under which Yandex will be given access Facebook user’s data.
As a part of the deal, Facebook will share public data of its users from Russia, Turkey, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and other CIS countries with Yandex.
Only public that information will be forwarded to Yandex, Facebook has revealed. The data will include only users’ posts and comments on them. Users can set their profile settings by clicking on the little icon next to the date on Facebook posts.
Yandex noted in a blog post: “users can find out what those on the social network are saying about the current headline news events, for example, or the latest movies.”
“In the near future, Yandex’s search results will display not only Facebook users’ posts but also others’ comments on them.”
Yandex further said that it cannot afford to ignore the impact and popularity of things on social networks like Facebook while ranking its search results.
“The intensity of discussion on any subject in social media is proof of the topic’s relevance, or ‘hotness’ if you will. A search engine has to take this into consideration”.
The company said that full access to public data on the social networking website meant that “Facebook will be better represented in Yandex’s search results”.
“We see one of our key tasks as being the creation of social search services, using content from all the popular social networks in equal measure.
“This would allow a user to find an old friend without having to register on every single social network one after another”.
None of the companies have yet disclosed the value of the deal, but reports suggest that the deal may not involve any cash.
