Search engine startup Wowd has launched a free Facebook app that lets users search the status updates and other content of the social networking site’s 500 million-strong user base.
The Wowd Social Discovery Client connects to Facebook through an API and offers tabs for ‘Web’, ‘Social’ and ‘History’ and supports all of Facebook’s functions.
Users will see ads in the Web tab that have been pulled from Wowd’s search engine, but the company intends to introduce ads to the Social tab as well, capitalising on ads relevant to Facebook conversations indexed by the search engine.
The Social Discovery Client will also offer sort options, one-click summaries and spam blocking alongside its search functionality.
According to Wowd CEO Mark Drummond, the average Facebook user posts more than ten updates a day and has 130 friends, a number that is rising quickly. “When people move beyond that number, they stop thinking of Facebook as fun and start feeling overwhelmed,” said he said.
The Social Discovery app lets users search for content that is relevant to them, as well as allowing them to build custom feeds using keywords and filters to sort through the stream of updates and comments to make it more relevant to them. Such feeds could be limited by date, favourite friends, links, photos and videos.
According to Wowd, the app will soon integrate other social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn, offering significant social media marketing opportunities.
