谷歌（Google）在2007年发布免费文字处理和制表软件时，并没有打算立刻推翻微软（Microsoft）的Office套件。毕竟，谷歌的软件比起Word和Excel来说存在不足——现在仍是如此。不过它们的发布揭开了蚕食微软核心专营这场持久战的序幕。2012财年，包括Office在内的微软商业部门收入达240亿美元。不过，如果谷歌没有提供更便宜的选择、而且被数以百万的公司使用的话，这个数额无疑还会更高。

    但是，Facebook也在谷歌的剧本中抢戏。这家社交网站巨头周二发布了一项搜索服务，目的并不是要将谷歌迅速拉下网页搜索的王座。实际上，这只是一场持久战的开始，目的在于在网络中最有力和最盈利的业务上侵蚀谷歌的垄断。如果成功，Facebook所谓的“图谱搜索（Graph Search）”就能为用户提供谷歌之外的选择，它对许多搜索词条也许更加实用。在恰当的时机，它还可能变成Facebook的一项大型业务。

    Facebook的联合创始人兼CEO马克•扎克伯格在加州门洛帕克的公司总部召开的一场座无虚席的新闻发布会上称：“图谱搜索并不是网页搜索。”

    的确，Facebook只搜索在自家网页上发生的事情。目前为止，它只专注于四类搜索：人、照片、爱好和地点。不过Facebook这项新服务能够查询的内容具有创新性，也很有用。

    用户可以“寻找喜爱足球的人”或“寻找在你家乡喜爱足球的人”，还可以找到他们曾喜欢过的所有图片或他们好友在巴黎拍的所有照片。他们可以在旧金山找到当地好友喜欢的餐馆，或是那些印度好友喜欢的餐馆——假如他们想要尝点辛辣食物的话。而这些，谷歌是办不到的。

    这项服务前途无量——顺带提一句，它的缔造者是两位前谷歌工程师带领的50人团队。首先，它可以扩大Facebook的功能，把它从一项互动工具扩展为一项能够帮用户发现新信息的工具。而谷歌不仅希望帮助人们寻找其他网页信息，还希望帮助人们寻找餐馆、水管工和高清电视信息，对此它理应感到忧虑。（谷歌拒绝就此发表评论。）

    然而，图谱搜索仍然处在测试阶段，而且只面向Facebook网站10亿用户中的很小一部分开放。这种谨慎情有可原。公司的测试版本引人注目，但是测试用户同时也是Facebook的员工。这些Facebook的“超级用户”可能记录了他们去的每个地方，“赞”了他们喜欢的每一本书、每一首歌、每个品牌。

    When Google unveiled free word processing and spreadsheet apps back in 2007, the company wasn't trying to immediately topple Microsoft's Office suite. After all, Google's apps were―and still are―inferior to powerful programs like Word and Excel. But their launch was the beginning of a long-term campaign to nibble away at one of Microsoft's core franchises. In fiscal 2012 Microsoft's business division, which includes Office, brought in $24 billion. But there is little doubt that it would be even larger had Google not offered a cheaper alternative now used by millions of businesses.

    Facebook (FB) is taking a page from Google's (GOOG) playbook. The social networking giant on Tuesday unveiled a search service. It is not aimed at toppling Google from its perch as the king of Web search any time soon. Instead, it is the opening round in a long-term campaign to erode Google's monopoly over the most powerful and profitable business on the Internet. If successful, Facebook's so-called "graph search" will offer users an alternative to Google that may work better for many types of queries. In due time, it could turn into a tidy business for Facebook.

    "Graph search is not Web search," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder and chief executive, said during a packed press conference at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

    Indeed, Facebook only searches for things that have happened on its sprawling site. For now, it concentrates on four types of searches: people, photos, interests and places. But the types of queries possible with Facebook's new service are innovative and useful.

    Users can "find friends who like soccer" or "find friends who like soccer in your hometown." Users can find all the photos they've liked or all the photos their friends have taken in Paris. They can find restaurants in San Francisco liked by friends who are locals, or by friends who are Indian―say if they're in the mood for spicy food. Users can't do that on Google.

    The promise of this kind of service—which, by the way, was built by a team of 50 engineers led by two ex-Googlers—is enormous. For starters, it could broaden the utility of Facebook, turning it from a tool of interaction into one that helps users discover new things. And Google, which is trying to be the place where people find not only other Web pages, but also restaurants or plumbers or HD televisions, should be worried. (Google declined to comment.)

    Yet Facebook's caution―graph search is still in beta or test mode, and is only being rolled out to a very small fraction of the site's more than 1 billion users―is warranted. The company's demo was dazzling, but the queries were for users who were also Facebook employees. These are Facebook "super-users" who likely check in every place they go, and click the Like button on every book, song or brand they, well, like.

    我斗胆猜测，大多数Facebook用户都不会如此频繁地使用这些网页，也不会经常分享他们正在阅读的书籍或者正在听的歌曲，更不会把他们的水管工、牙医和承包商介绍给关系最近的500个好友。没有这些信息，他们对图谱搜索的贡献就很有限。我有几百个Facebook好友，而当我搜索“我朋友喜爱的位于奥克兰的披萨店”时，结果却难以令人满意——因为只返回了一条结果。（Facebook常规用户可以点击此处申请使用图谱搜索。）

    当然，在搜索行业，谷歌从不会过时。公司已经有了Google+的社交网络。尽管缺少Facebook的活跃度，它却能够作为基础，让谷歌随时建立起能与图谱搜索抗衡的服务。（《财富》2011年的封面故事中曾提到，这场战争已经持续了很长时间。）

    扎克伯格在记者招待会上的轻描淡写也许就是他对货币化的回应。他说：“久而久之，这可能会成为一个潜在的商机。”目前，图谱搜索没有广告。但是当人们开始大量搜索餐馆等商店时，大量的相关企业就会愿意掏钱给Facebook，好让自己在搜索结果中占据有利的位置。扎克伯格说，在考虑植入广告前，Facebook会专心改善产品，让它能支持手机和多种语言。

    扎克伯格说：“我觉得它是这段时间内我们最了不起的成就之一。”许多Facebook分析人士也同意这种说法。如果Facebook在灾难性的首次公开募股后四面楚歌，扎克的团队则再次将目标瞄准了谷歌，提醒这位最强劲的竞争对手：尽管它一时低迷，却绝不会就此出局。

    噢，对了，两位巨头在今后几年展开竞争的同时，必将产生附带损害。周二，点评网站Yelp在谷歌之前受到了Facebook图谱搜索的影响，股票下跌了6%。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    I'd venture a guess that the majority of Facebookers are more parsimonious in their usage of the site and may not regularly share what they're reading or listening to, let alone recommend their plumber, dentist or contractor to their closest 500 friends. Without that information, their contribution to the search graph will be limited. I have hundreds of Facebook friends, yet the answer to the query "pizza places in Oakland that my friends like" was hardly satisfying—it listed just one result. (Regular Facebook users can request access to graph search here.)

    And of course, Google has never been known for taking its eye off the ball when it comes to search. The company already has a social network in Google+. While it lacks the level of activity that Facebook enjoys, it could readily serve as the basis for Google to build a rival graph search service. (As Fortune chronicled in its 2011 cover story, this battle has been a long time coming.)

    The biggest understatement of the press conference may well have been Zuckerberg's response to the question of monetization. "This could potentially be a business over time," he said. For now, graph search has no ads. But if people start searching for restaurants of stores in large numbers, plenty of those businesses will be willing to pay Facebook in exchange for preferential placement in search results. Zuckerberg said Facebook would focus on improving the product, and rolling it out on mobile phones and in other languages, before it considers taking ads.

    "This is one of the coolest things that I think we have done in a while," Zuckerberg said. Many Facebook analysts agree. If Facebook appeared beleaguered after its disastrous IPO, Zuck's crew is gunning for Google again, reminding its biggest rival that while it was down for while it certainly wasn't out.

    Oh, and as the two giants battle it out in the coming years, there is bound to be collateral damage. On Tuesday, shares of Yelp (YELP), which risks being tripped up by Facebook's graph search sooner than Google will, dropped more than 6%.