Comments on: What I want from Search: Content that’s meaningful to me http://propr.ca/2009/my-christmas-wish-content-thats-meaningful-to-me/ Exploring social media and public relations Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:01:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: McDonalds Content and Social Search | davefleet.com http://propr.ca/2009/my-christmas-wish-content-thats-meaningful-to-me/comment-page-1/#comment-672402 McDonalds Content and Social Search | davefleet.com Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:02:51 +0000 http://propr.ca/?p=2675#comment-672402 [...] lies in the potential for social connections to contextualize and prioritize our search results. Joe Thornley wrote an interesting post the other day suggesting exactly that – that “search [...] [...] lies in the potential for social connections to contextualize and prioritize our search results. Joe Thornley wrote an interesting post the other day suggesting exactly that – that “search [...]

]]> By: Joseph Thornley http://propr.ca/2009/my-christmas-wish-content-thats-meaningful-to-me/comment-page-1/#comment-672317 Joseph Thornley Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:13:25 +0000 http://propr.ca/?p=2675#comment-672317 Thanks for the comments Chris and Nick. I'm enthusiastic about Google's moves. But they haven't yet met the test of usability. They still feel like disjointed experiments. But I do think that they're on the right track. I hope they and others will keep innovating until they develop something intuitive and natural. Thanks for the comments Chris and Nick.

I’m enthusiastic about Google’s moves. But they haven’t yet met the test of usability. They still feel like disjointed experiments.

But I do think that they’re on the right track. I hope they and others will keep innovating until they develop something intuitive and natural.

]]> By: Nick Desbarats http://propr.ca/2009/my-christmas-wish-content-thats-meaningful-to-me/comment-page-1/#comment-672060 Nick Desbarats Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:35:35 +0000 http://propr.ca/?p=2675#comment-672060 Yes, Google is indeed working on it... http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-google-social-search-i.html Google already does this to some extent if you install the Google Toolbar and allow your usage data to be shared with Google. They (Google) claim that they're analyzing your general web behaviour to personalize results, though I doubt this includes your social media behaviours specifically at this point (outside of Google properties anyway). Social search has been a hot topic for years, but it never seems to catch on (a number of social search startups have come and gone). My belief is that this is because, as you pointed out, just because you know someone doesn't mean that you consider the same things to be relevant. I believe that it's also because "sifting through long lists of results" just doesn't happen that often. 95% of the time, people find what they're looking for among the top 5 results... Yes, Google is indeed working on it…

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-google-social-search-i.html

Google already does this to some extent if you install the Google Toolbar and allow your usage data to be shared with Google. They (Google) claim that they’re analyzing your general web behaviour to personalize results, though I doubt this includes your social media behaviours specifically at this point (outside of Google properties anyway).

Social search has been a hot topic for years, but it never seems to catch on (a number of social search startups have come and gone). My belief is that this is because, as you pointed out, just because you know someone doesn’t mean that you consider the same things to be relevant. I believe that it’s also because “sifting through long lists of results” just doesn’t happen that often. 95% of the time, people find what they’re looking for among the top 5 results…

]]> By: Chris Biber http://propr.ca/2009/my-christmas-wish-content-thats-meaningful-to-me/comment-page-1/#comment-672014 Chris Biber Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:36:41 +0000 http://propr.ca/?p=2675#comment-672014 From where I stand, the focus of Google has always been content relevance and quality. In the absence of Social Media, this meant evaluating web pages for content relevance and then evaluating the importance of these pages by assessing links. Social media has broadened the approach. By enriching the linking environment with context and personal networks, search results will only become better over time. And yes, I would be amazed if Google employees weren't already working on the tool that you envision. Given that Google's value is entirely dependent on providing searchers with relevant, high quality content, not doing so would be foolish. Chris From where I stand, the focus of Google has always been content relevance and quality. In the absence of Social Media, this meant evaluating web pages for content relevance and then evaluating the importance of these pages by assessing links. Social media has broadened the approach. By enriching the linking environment with context and personal networks, search results will only become better over time.

And yes, I would be amazed if Google employees weren’t already working on the tool that you envision. Given that Google’s value is entirely dependent on providing searchers with relevant, high quality content, not doing so would be foolish.

Chris

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