Facebooks vision of becoming a utility that offers activities to keep people online for hours could set it on a collision course with the Web's giants. In recent days, the No.1 social networking company revamped its search engine and bought a start-up that some call a rival to hot micro-blogging service Twitter. It is also testing a stripped-down version of its service to boost growth overseas and is developing an electronic payments system. These moves mark a new phase in Facebook's evolution as the five-year-old company meshes the viral power of social networks and its huge member base to barge into new markets. With more than 250 million members, Facebook was the world's fourth most visited website in June, according to comScore. It is on track to bring in more than $500 million in revenue this year, most of it from advertising sales. Facebook's previous search engine was useful for finding other people on the site, but the new version lets users look up what others are saying about particular topics, from healthcare to Iran and the search results are relevant to each person, the Vice President of Facebook told. Facebook is likely not interested in going head-to-head in Internet search with Google but the areas of overlap between the companies are increasing, and by beefing up search, Facebook could become more competitive with Google.
