17
February
2011
|
05:15 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Analysis: Google Social Search Is All About Blocking Facebook/Twitter Search

Google's decision to give prominence to links in search results that come from your social network might help to improve some search results but it will not improve overall search quality.

Google posted:

Official Google Blog: An update to Google Social Search

...if you're thinking about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and your colleague Matt has written a blog post about his own experience, then we'll bump up that post with a note and a picture.



A person's social network cannot come close to intersecting with the hundreds of thousands of searches that a user makes in a year. It might help in a few searches but the vast majority of searches will rely on the standard Google algorithm.

The latest Google move is better understood as a blocking measure to stop people from asking their social network directly. Many pundits have said that Google's biggest challenge is that people will search for recommendations from their social network first.

Well, here is Google's response and it's a pretty good one because it means you don't have to bother your friends directly, you can see if they have posted anything on a particular subject through a simple Google search.

Yes, you can still ask direct questions from your social network but you won't be asking many because you don't want to constantly spam your friends. Which is why social search is overblown as a challenger to Google.