Facebook Just Took a Big Shot at Google's Search Business

December 9, 2014 12:57 PM EST

Facebook is making a change this week that, if it works, may finally sound the death knell for Google Plus, the search giant’s rival social network.

One of Facebook’s biggest weaknesses is that its internal search isn’t very robust. If you suddenly remembered your best friend posted about a cool new band on your wall a couple months ago and you wanted to go back and find that post, good luck. It’s the exact opposite experience you might have on Google services like Gmail, which turns your inbox into a vast trove of easily-searchable info.

And that was one of the most promising things about Google Plus, when it launched three years ago: The idea that Google might turn all your online social interactions into an easy-to-search repository. From a user’s perspective, that would be handy because the stuff your friends share directly with you is often more relevant to you than what you can dig up in a general web search.

But Google Plus was even more crucial from Google’s perspective. With more of the content that’s most relevant to us appearing on our social networks rather than the broader web, it makes sense that we might think to search on social media before we search the wider Internet. If Google didn’t have an answer for that potential trend, it could result—in the very long run—in fewer people using its biggest moneymaker, search.

Search remains a vastly profitable business for Google. Revenue from Google-owned websites made up 69% of the company’s total $16.52 billion in revenue for the third quarter of this year. Google doesn’t break out exactly how much of that is from the ads it sells against your search results, but several estimates are in the 50% and up range. And it’s Android platform for cell phones has helped it lock down mobile search, an area as hot as social.

Still, Google’s search business is starting to slow. And that’s where Facebook comes in. The social network announced an improved internal search feature this week that it company promises will make it easier to find stuff our friends shared with us in the past. The search upgrade is specifically designed to work well on mobile, an area where Facebook is already considered king in terms of driving traffic.

If Facebook’s new search function works well, more of its users might be inclined to search there rather than heading to Google, especially on their phones. And that would give Facebook an opening to take a run at Google’s dominance in search.

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**Far Cry 4**. This pulled back shot of fictional Himalayan region Kyrat is in-game, believe it or not, rendered with an overhauled version of the engine Ubisoft used to design *Far Cry 3*. Ubisoft

The Last of Us Remastered — **The Last of Us: Remastered**. Naughty Dog's meditation on the worst (and best) of humanity is built on technology that reaches back through the studio's pulp-adventure *Uncharted* series. The graphics are so impressive, TIME recently assigned a conflict photographer to photograph inside the game.Ashley Gilbertson for TIME

**Alien: Isolation** Built from scratch, the *Alien: Isolation* engine's outstanding deep space visuals all but replicate the set design of *Alien* film concept artists H.R. Giger and Ron Cobb's work. The Creative Assembly

**Assassin's Creed Unity**. Ubisoft says it "basically remade the whole rendering engine" in its AnvilNext design tool to handle the studio's meticulous recreation of Paris during the French Revolution. Ubisoft

**Child of Light** Inspired by filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki and artist Yoshitaka Amano, *Child of Light*'s hand-drawn artwork puts the lie to presumptions that graphical richness depends on shader support or polygon counts. Ubisoft

**Destiny** Built from scratch by ex-Halo studio Bungie, *Destiny*'s game engine was designed to scale across the next decade, says the studio. Bungie

**Mario Kart 8** Nintendo's kart-racer for Wii U reminds us that raw horsepower is just a facet of crafting a beautiful game world. Nintendo

**Infamous Second Son** Sucker Punch's freeform Seattle-based superhero adventure models all sorts of minutia, from the intricate wrinkling of an aged character's face to the way eyelids stick, slightly, before separating when characters blink. Sucker Punch Productions

**Monument Valley** Escher-like at first glance, Ustwo's mind-bending puzzler was also inspired by posters, bonsai plants, arabic calligraphy and filmmaker Tarsem Singh's *The Fall*. Ustwo

**Grand Theft Auto V** Rockstar's remastered crime spree opus was crafted from an in-house engine first employed in a game that simulated table tennis. Rockstar

**Forza Horizon 2** Turn 10's Euro-racer actually models light refracted through drops of moisture, the render tech plausibly simulating something as intangible but essential as the earth’s atmosphere. Microsoft Studios/Turn 10 Studios

**80 Days** Inkle's anti-colonialist vamp on Jules Verne's famous novel uses crisp art deco imagery inspired by travel posters to unfurl *80 Days*' tale of intrepid globetrotters Monsieur Fogg and his valet Passepartout. Inkle

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition — **Tomb Raider** Crystal Dynamics' radical reboot of its popular series about an athletic archaeologist uses a modified version of the engine that powered *Tomb Raider: Legend* in 2006. Square Enix

Facebook Just Took a Huge Shot at Google

See The 15 Best Video Game Graphics of 2014

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