Google Releases Social Search
Last week Google announced the release of "Google Social Search", a new search add on that incorporates users' social network data into their personalised search results.For example, if you search for "New York", normal Google results would not normally display a friend's blog that is themed on New York. However, with Social Search, the user's friend's blog would be shown in a search for "New York", under the heading "Results from people in your social circle for New York."
Social Search works like this: a Google user logs into his Google account, and signs up for Social Search. They then give permission to Google to use elements of their social media including Twitter, Friendfeed, Google Reader and Gmail contacts. When the Social Search user then conducts a search on Google, the results show blogs, photos, reviews and other content from their social media contacts.
Social Search, which is still in beta (or "labs" as Google calls it), has produced concerns from some quarters over privacy. On the official Google blog there were attempts to allay these fears: "All the information that appears as part of Google Social Search is published publicly on the web — you can find it without Social Search if you really want to. What we've done is surface that content together in one single place to make your results more relevant."
Marissa Meyer, Vice-President of Google's Search Products, also added recently: "You opt into using Social Search, and then we look at who your friends are and what content they might be publishing...We tell you which data source we used in order to find that friend. We're doing our best to be transparent about how we found the relationships. And people have the choice of whether they want the feature or not."
Google Social Search could be potentially be seen as another nail in the coffin of traditional, main index SEO. With the onset of localisation and personalisation over the past few years, the notion that internet marketers had to optimize their sites to display in one index of rankings that everyone saw has become less potent. Instead, the old model is being replaced by search engine changes that make the idea of having a "one results page fits all" more and more redundant.
Social search is a type of personalisation that takes moves this process on to the next step. SEO's will have to be smart and innovative if they are to keep up with these changes to how search engines operate.
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