I've even heard of DVD players available in Japan (of course, not here in the US) with a USB jack supporting similar functionality. And, there's one on my FiOS box that I suspect will someday do the same thing...

However there is an angle that makes a difference, user investment. Facebook will hold up against any search engine because users have invested the time and effort to grow their friend networks. Switching to a competitor would mean starting from scratch, but switching search engines is effortless.