Thursday, November 25, 2010

Social Search?

"search is getting more social every day and tomorrow's recommendations from people you know via Facebook are infinitely more valuable than search results from yesterday's algorithm"
- Publishing needs a social strategy - O'Reilly Radar:

Really? What kinds of searches are we talking about? When I search for some technical question or someone searches for e.g. a solution to an aquarium problem, is Facebook really going to help? Personally, I think I'd rather have "yesterday's algorithm".

Sure, if I'm looking for something like a restaurant recommendation then I'd be interested in what my friends have to say. But unless you have a huge, well travelled circle of friends, how likely is it that they'll have recommendations for some random city you're in? And if the recommendations aren't coming from friends, then we're back to regular search.

This "everything is social" craze drives me crazy. Believe it or not, Facebook is not the ultimate answer to every problem.

1 comment:

Jen said...

It's not! Ah crud. :o)

I hear ya! There isn't much that I google that I would trust my friends answers to anyway :op