The concept of “Social Search” is not new.   Nevertheless, as the social networking “movement” continues to grow at rapid rates, users are now more than ever becoming more accustomed to seeking answers and information outside the realm of the traditional search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Users want relevancy, not just general search results. Searchers want to rely on a trusted resource, not just the best optimized web page.

We are accustomed to seeking advice from our peers. Now with companies like Facebook, Collecta, ChaCha, Wikipedia, we have the ability to seek relevant information through social channels of our choice. If I do not find my answer on Yelp, I can always try Aadvark. When Amazon does not have the right review, I can ask my Twitter followers their opinion.



The holy grail of marketing has always been Word of Mouth, why should it be any different online? With technology regularly advancing, the ease of online peer communication for personal question and answers sessions is something mathematical algorithms will never live up to. Unless the semantic web evolves tomorrow, brands need to recognize this trend early so they can create the proper communication strategy to connect with consumers in the social channels.

There is always hype around the next “Google Killer,” but perhaps we need to look at search trends and habits, rather than a singular site or engine for that answer - social search is here to stay.

Image credit: problogger.net