OK everyone needs to sit back and take a breath. All of this hype how Facebook is more popular than Google, blah blah blah... The simple fact here is that Facebook is OK if you have a product or service you want to get the name out to candidates. Even then its only OK. If you are serious about business, you should 100% NOT ignore your normal SEO efforts. What Google are doing saying "it can do this and work that way" is all part of the whole marketing effort that they are trying to do - any many people are sucking it up! This is what marketing is all about Take a scenario to explain this point... You are after a plumber or you need to find a vet because your cat is poorly. Where do you head? Facebook to use its very limited search functions to find many people and business who aren't on there and never will be (because they are busy with their business) or Google where they will be found quickly and based on your actual search results? It doesn't take anyone who has more than a single figure IQ to work out where business is going to come from. For 99% of businesses (its that high) Facebook is nothing more than a way to get more exposure about a product or service that you offer - it is very very far from a saving grace for all other companies. Spend your time on Google and think of Facebook as what it is - a place where people hang out and look at what others are doing. In the real world, it makes next to no business. Another example - A place of business (real company) who have around 30 employees and of those 30, about 20 have Facebook accounts - they are used for nothing other than looking at updates and scandal or gossip from friends - not one of them uses it for business. Use Facebook for what it is!
I agree with you to a point. No one is going to search for your service on Facebook. However it can be a good way to keep an open dialogue with your customers to keep you in mind for future purchases.
And this is where it is not for all businesses - I agree with you, but we have an audience of around 21,000 businesses in the UK - of those, I know of about 10 that use Facebook for this purpose and get nothing back from it - just simply because it is not really applicable. Its good for certain things but they have a lot of thinking to do in order to make it work as more of a business service. I am sure this will happen but will it ever surpass Google in what it does? How can it when the majority of its accounts are individuals rather than businesses!