A nice article at SearchEngineLand today about The Impending Social Search Inflection Point. Good that they realize that the 3rd phase of search will be social, as I pointed out 2 years ago. I realized however that there are two very distinct ideas emerging about what “social” means in this context. And people are always mixing them without realizing it.
- Social Democracies: Wikipedia, Digg are social in that everyone can have a say in the final outcome. But in the end, there is only one outcome.
- Social Networks: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn are social in that people form connections and these connections determine your rights within the system. Information available to you depends greatly on these connections.
The SearchEngineLand article renews my frustration that many see Social Search as automatically being a Social Democracy. From the article:
What is social search? To paraphrase Microsoft’s Ramez Naam, it’s like every human being is a neuron, and humanity as a whole is one giant brain, smarter as a connected whole. (emphasis added)
And later:
The wisdom of crowds – so well articulated by James Surowiecki – is at the root of emerging information retrieval tools.
Of course there are contexts in which you’d like to have every human being casting a vote. I think the stuff on Digg is pretty entertaining, and I often consult Wikipedia. But when I want to buy a HDTV, or a I want a good restaurant in Boulder, or I want some expert writings on term sheets…I do not want the whole world chiming in! I don’t want the “wisdom of the crowds”, I want the “wisdom of my crowd.”
In game theory language, I want the cost of influencing my search results to be based on social connections, not on the mere fact that someone can pass a CAPTCHA. (See Costs and Transparency in Ranking Systems)
And that’s what Social Networks are all about. It’s about filtering out the noise and finding what you need based on trusted relationships. Why is it so hard to see how this applies to search?? This is what we all did before the advent of the internet: Curious about cars? Ask your car friend. Curious about TVs? Ask your local home electronics guru. A friend is getting into MLM? Don’t ask them for product tips anymore.
In fact, people are already “searching” using social networks. But the tools suck and are pretty much limited to business contacts and dates. (FaceBook’s bookmarking feature may be a sign that they are waking up to more possibilities.)
Given that everyone uses social networks in the real world, it’s ironic how hard it is to explain this “Social Network Search” of Lijit. I guess it’s like trying to explain to explain English grammar to a native speaker: they know it so well and instinctively that they hardly realize there is a technique to it.
(Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I’ve been uber-busy and then uber-sick. Normal posting shall resume shortly!)
Yes. As long as the new online social search democracy doesn’t degenerate into a virtual mobocracy. I can already see signs of that on some social search and social network web sites.