Facebook Granted Google To Crawl & Index Its Mobile App

Last week, Facebook started permitting Google to “crawl and index its mobile app” in its mobile search results to indicate publicly accessible information. This implies Facebook for android users would now be ready to directly jump to the relevant page within the app from Google mobile search results. 

“When people look for public Facebook content on the mobile internet, people who use Facebook for android can now click through and go straight to the Facebook app,” said a Facebook representative to The Wall Street Journal, news that was also confirmed by an Alphabet representative to the publication. 

Google To ‘Deep Link’ Facebook App In Mobile Search 

Google had introduced App indexing earlier this year for android apps, then later this year for iOS apps. This allowed users to access information from search results and ‘deep links’ within apps that had been indexed by Google. Whereas the service initially began with only a number of app partners, it was shortly opened out to all developers who wanted their apps indexed. With the functionality accessible for iOS, we can expect the Google-Facebook partnership to soon reach the Facebook for iOS app. 

As you might be aware, until now Google mobile searches for publicly-available Facebook information showed results that LED users to the Facebook mobile website. Now, those users who have the Facebook for android app put in on their phones or tablets will be taken straight to the page on the Facebook app.

 Those worried that Google now has even more information on the market on users should note that Google doesn’t have access to content that needs user log-in or is private. For that content, users would need to use social media giant’s recently updated Facebook Search service. The Google search results are only restricted to publicly shared content. 

The agreement can see benefits for both Facebook and Google. While the social network would now see Google search users pay longer among the Facebook app, while Google makes it mobile search feature more attractive to users. Google recently additionally teamed up with Twitter to show relevant tweets straight from its mobile and app search.