What is Social Search and How Did You Invent It?

Essentially you are heading up this movement on your Twitter and Facebook page everyday, this new search labeled "social search" is something we all created!

Basically, social search is when you ask the people you are connected with on your social networks questions and they help you to find the answers (based on their knowledge of that subject). For example I can ask "Where can I get the best steak in Michigan?". I will get back suggestions from my connections and the ones who appear to be most knowledgable (like my connections living in Michigan, or my dad - a steak connoisseur) will be the recommendations I go with.

There are companies who have identified this trend as a whole new way to search for answers on the web. Instead of the Google search of web pages by highest rank (according to their secret algorithm), sites like Aardvark are searching social networks. They are consolidating this concept into a site that asks users to submit their inquiry and it searches networks for the "experts" in your subject and throws back answers through email or IM.

It is a really interesting concept and I would be surprised if these sites don't get extremely popular. The Internet has opened up and while we think a lot of "Google" when we think of search it is really important to see that this trend is looking more at the users of social networks to start becoming the knowledgable experts on topics.

Posted February 5, 2010 | Read all posts by Jessica Skewes