“We are joining Facebook!” declares the home page of search engine TheFind.com, which was founded in 2006 as FatLens Inc., specializing in event tickets search, and later expanding to product search.
“For the last nine years, we’ve worked hard to bring you a shopping experience that’s easy, efficient and fun – searching all the stores on the web to find just the right products you’re looking to buy, ” continues the message.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed the acquisition, but the social networking giant has little use for TheFind’s database. Instead it plans to utilize the service powering TheFind’s search engine to create better advertisements matching consumer requirement.
That information throws a doubtful light on TheFind’s home page giddy announcement: “We are now starting our next chapter by combining forces with Facebook to do even more for consumers. Facebook’s resources and platform give us the opportunity to scale our expertise in product sourcing to the over 1 billion people that use the platform.”
Or they’re being bought for their search server, essentially, and Facebook will just strip the website for parts and move on, like a Vogon spaceship after the demolition of Earth.
This explains the end part of TheFind’s message to users:
“Key members of our team are joining the company and will be working hard to integrate our technology to make the ads you see on Facebook every day better and more relevant to you.”
Everybody else gets off the bus at this station.
And, finally, as the announcement concludes: “Unfortunately, this means we will be taking our search engine offline in the next few weeks.”
All hail Lord Zuckerberg…