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Will Social Defeat Search?

Started by Nick O'Neill · 10 months ago

An article posted today in Popular Mechanics asks if social may end up defeating search. Are they suggesting that social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and others could actually defeat a multi-billion dollar company like Google? Yes and I completely agree. How do I know this? Well I found ... Continue reading »

4 comments

  • Elliot in Web Design

    1 year ago

    I don't think social will replace search. I think it's the right tool for the right job type of thing. We all still use one of the major search engines to find things in a "pull" fashion. I find that Twitter and to a lesser extent things like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc allow me to receive some niche "push" information.

    Mainstream broadcast (push) information is available in RSS form which, while not search, is also not really a social type thing.

    All of these things will grow in utility and popularity in great combinations with each other.

    We live in a great, rich information world.
    reply
  • Justin Thorp

    1 year ago

    I disagree with Elliot. I think we can absolutely use the social web to "pull" information.

    Last Friday, I was headed into Dulles for a late night flight to Dulles. I wanted to grab a beer before my flight and polled my Twitter friends where they thought the best Dulles bars were. I got responses back and in seconds.

    I can see this happening more and more. I'll have a question and just be able to throw it out into the ether and get a response from one of my friends who is specialized in that area.
    reply
  • Ari Shohat

    1 year ago

    Search, no matter how imperfect, at least currently scales somehow.

    I do not see social scaling just yet. The bigger and the more crowded our networks become, the worse the signal to noise ratio becomes.

    It's just getting over-polluted with either people who are too loud with little of true value to add.

    There is also another problem. Many who attempt to go "social" find that their voice is being drowned out, or at least it's not easy to get in without playing the buddy buddy game. And there are a lot of serious and smart people out there, who just don't have the time.

    What am I talking about? Well Nick, YOU may ask Gary Vaynerchuk for a good wine, and ask Frank Gruber for the best tools - but not everyone is you.

    - Not everyone developed their social presence or footprint like you have.
    - Not everyone has the right social skills to develop their social footprint.
    - Not everyone wants to spend the time to do so, even if they know how to.
    - Or, most of all, Gary V just wouldn't have the time of day to try and answer many such personal requests.

    In other words, there's really a limit to a one to one type of interaction that can take place on social. The more people that join and reach for someone's attention, the harder it becomes. So how do we make it scale?

    Hope this makes some sense, in a rhetorical kind of way.
    reply
  • erikn

    1 year ago

    As soon as your friends can give you results in under a second, "search" is dead. Until that time arrives, don't expect too many changes in the status quo.
    reply

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