Published: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 in future » social by Thomas Baekdal
As you probably know, both Google and Microsoft have entered into a partnership with Twitter and is now incorporating social search into their regular search engines. This is a big deal because social is a very important element of the future of search... it's not the only part though.
When it comes to searching, a search engine is supposed to do one thing very well. Find stuff, from highly relevant and trustworthy sources, in relation to you as a person.
Let me give you an example: Let's pretend that you live in Australia, and that you are looking to buy a new car. You might not know this, but the entire country of Australia is pretty much divided into three types of car owners. People who drive a Holden, people who drives a Ford, and other people who drive something else (yes I'm making a blatant generalization).
But, here is the thing, the reason people drive a Ford over a Holden (or vise versa), isn't because the car is better. It is the result of the community that they are part of. Their friends drive a Ford, their Parents drive a Ford, and the annoying neighbor drives a Holden... so you also drive a Ford.
It is the same with other types of products. If most of your friends use a Dell, then you are also very likely use one yourself. If your friends use Heinz Ketchup, then you will probably use the same brand.
As human beings we are heavily influenced by what other people use, and depending on who those people are, the more likely we will be influenced by them.
So how does this relate to search? Well, so far, Google and Microsoft have based their searches on things, instead of people. If you searched for recipes for tomato soup, they would find the ones that were most popular by other sites, or their relation to the specific search query. And we get a pretty good result, but from generalized perspective.
Twitter on the other hand is really good at people, or to be more precise, it could be good at it (it isn't really yet). But, Twitter covers what people close to you, in terms of influence, are talking about, and if you can combine that with Google's general results then you have something really spectacular.
If you combine this targeted+personal+influenced+people+content+ranked search result (need a shorter word for that), then we would suddenly get some real answers.
If you search for tomato soup, it will not just find the biggest sites, it will look at your social stream to see whether there are anyone there who are really good, and who has an opinion that matters to you. If you are following a person who is into food, then her opinion is ranked higher than just any regular website.
But more important, it will not just look at the stream, but actually analyze it over time, It will extract what it is really about. It will compare that to many other algorithms, and finally match the content with you as a person.
If you search for Ikea, not only would pages more relevant to you be ranked higher, but also, you would be able to see what people feel about the brand, the specific product, all ranked on how close that source is to you as a person.
And, it is not just search that could use this. Google could create a people-rank API, so other sites like Tweetmeme could rank their content not only based how frequently it is retweeted, but also how it relates to you, and to other people.
So far Google has been really good at things, places, sites or pages, but it lacks relevance because it doesn't know people. Twitter have the people element (although Twitter search doesn't extract any meaning from it), same with Facebook, comments on blogs, reviews on product sites (from real people), rankings, and general activity.
Combine all that and you got the future of search. It is not social, not traditional - but both + it's targeted to you. And it can be used for more than simply searching.
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Hi Jolante, That was a very relevant link (I had forgotten about Topsy). Thanks :)
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More on the future of social search: Questions for Facebook's Brian Boland http://bit.ly/1ngatb
- Geek translator. Digital marketing for tourism incl. search, social media, SEO – all the buzzwords. Plus network admin, photographer, trombone player.
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Thomas, you've got a couple of paragraphs in there that are duplicates - kind of confuses the point the article is trying to make. (2 paras beginning "If you search for tomato soup, it will not just find the biggest sites...")
Otherwise, interesting possibilities!
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Hi Paul,
Thanks for the heads up! I have fixed the article :)
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Actually, now it's fixed. I just noticed that the images were misplaced too. I don't know why though, because they are looking just fine in the original setup (before being being posted).
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Interesting article. You take concepts that Alex Iskold's and I were trying to articulate about "Social Relevancy Rank" and elaborate on them.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_search_social_relevancy_rank.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rethinking_social_relevancy_rank_whats_missing.php
Another relevant reference is Chris Messina and Jyri Engestrom's article on the "Web at a New Crossroads" where they talk about the implications of moving from a web of documents (that Google is good at Indexing) to a web of people (that still needs a lot of work).
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rethinking_social_relevancy_rank_whats_missing.php
I've also written previously about how social search won't topple Google, but work alongside it.
http://brynnevans.com/blog/2009/01/30/why-social-search-wont-topple-google-anytime-soon/
I'm mentioning these related links because I'm deeply interested in what the future of social search will look like too! I've done lots of research on this and am writing a complementary piece currently (stay tuned) on "three flavors of social search".
A few questions for you: is your color-coated graphics supposed to show degrees of influence? I would fully agree that we're influenced by our peers/neighbors. (My advisor always used to say that: "people go to where their friends are.") But in information seeking, needs can vary widely and "influence" may be more a factor of the *type* of information need than a simple bucket of closeness of the social circle. I'm willing to discuss this point, and think we (as a community) should come up with a series of examples that explore this issue.
Great to meet you and learn of your work!
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Hi Brynn, Thanks for all the links. Very interesting! (I will read them in detail tonight) :)
The color-coated graphics are supposed to show varies degrees of influence, but in a very simplified way.
The real world is more complex than that. E.g. in the case of Ford vs. Holden i Australia, there are a lot of people who will buy something else simply to be different. Or if you do not feel that your friends doesn't really know enough to guide you, then you might skip what they feel, and be influenced by other factors.
It is also very important to remember we are not influenced by a single thing, it's a collection of impressions that each help us make up our minds. We might be swayed by the crowd, and then only later related that our friends. But the following reactions from our friends is a very important element - even when process of getting there has been reversed.
funny... i've been writing all night long a similar thing... (you are cited) http://www.harrr.org/rrr/information-social-search/
Thank you for an interesting article, It's really nice.
But one of things I concern is how to rank social content. Eric Schmidt just said Google could index in real time but not sure about ranking it. And even Facebook's news feed is not good enough in this. Do you have any idea?
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xoai, A big part of it is the people rank, that is, how much influence each person have. Based on that, and Google's general page ranks, you get a pretty good social rank.
But there is still a long way to go for the search engines...
interesting article..but i m not in the favour of twiter ..you lost everything when it comes to privacy..
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Naveed, Twitter isn't supposed to be private. It is a tool for communicating with anyone who wants to follow you.
Hi Thomas,
I'm a frequent visitor of your site and I must say, as stated above, very interesting article.
However I do have a few questions:
Do you think, in the future, this social search is implemented in the contemporary search engines?
Because, I don't know whether I'm happy with 'polluted' search results with opinions of friends while I really look for an experts' opinion.
Furthermore, I'm not a twitter user and, although I'm familiar with its use, I don't think it has enough added value for me to actively participate. To use this social search do you need twitter or another social community on which you actively participate?
Or is it possible to use the same kind of system often used in webstores where you get recommendations on stuff other people also bought?
In that case I agree with naveed on his statement on your privacy.
Hi everybody,
I am not a native speaker so soory for my English.
Firstly, thank you very much for all the posts. I have spent last three days by searching about future of search engine marketing and these posts are really helpful.
I do not think that social ranking will influenced relevancy of search results. I am sure Google perfectly know what they want and what they are doing, as always. Criteria for page rank will mixed to give searchers the best. Sometimes it looks like Google determine the internet trends not only for so called competitors but also for users. They are the best marketers. They do not look what people want and need but they show as what we will need.
But back to the topic. Do you have some opinion on how this social search can influnce search engine optimalization?
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Hi Thomas,
Great post, like the visuals, it helps put things into context better for everyone.
Sri
Hi Thomas,
Great post, like the visuals, it helps put things into context better for everyone.
Sri
CEO at 7billion. Working with strategies for how to carry through market research, marketing and sales within social media channels. www.7billion.se
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Splendid! I am listening..
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Nov 10
2009
Jolante
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About spotting influencers, this is a start:
http://topsy.com/twitter/baekdal