Social Integrations in Search

November 11, 2009
 

People are spending more time on their social networks and going to them for suggestions and review. And the search engines have taken notice of the power of social media, and recently, some big announcements have been made about partnerships between social media platforms and search engines. Bruce Clay, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey are critical and cautious in light of the potential implications of Bing’s Twitter and Facebook status update integration and Google’s experimental Social Search feature.



While content from social media and social networks has become increasingly integrated within traditional search engines, a new search engine and aggregator, LeapFish, seeks to gather and display real-time, social and multi-media results in a way fitting of the evolved Web environment. Ben Behrouzi, CEO of LeapFish, talks to Virginia about the need for far-reaching, relevant and customizable aggregation of data, including rich media, social and real-time content.

Finally, analysts are taking note of social media’s role in consumer behavior and influence as the holiday season approaches. Businesses and shoppers alike are turning to social media. Consumers are looking for deals, customer reviews and contextual information about products and services. And businesses are taking advantage of the opportunity to reach an audience through a platform that accentuates sincerity, reliability and openness.