Okay, so it’s not news that Facebook uses Microsoft’s Bing search engine. When you use Facebook’s search bar Bing is what brings up your search term’s web results beyond Facebook.

What is surprising is that lately, when you go to Facebook’s front page and before you sign in a Bing search bar is center stage.

That’s not just surprising, it’s decidedly odd.

An argument could be made that Facebook’s front page is the most valuable real estate on the entire Internet, seen by almost a billion people a day. If its space is for rent and a brand with enough money to get their message across can do so, putting the Bing search bar is not the best use of that space.

Why?

Well for a start, most of the people I know are never logged out of Facebook in the first place. Ever. And the ones who do log out long right back in the minute that Facebook.com loads in their browser.

No one is ever going to go to Facebook and, just before they log in, think “Wait, I want to search for something on the Internet!”

I actually can conceive of the possibility that someone might do that, but that’s only because I have a really good imagination.

Two other things to consider: A growing number of people spend the majority of their Facebook time connected via a mobile device, so perhaps the website’s front page isn’t that valuable after all.

Lastly, if you do want to do a web search, you’re more likely to enter your search terms into your browser’s address bar, as opposed to using a search bar on a web page, whether it’s Facebook’s or otherwise.