As the lines between search engines and social networks continue to blur, things are getting interesting. Consider, as most of you already know, that Google is the #1 online destination and that Facebook is now #2 (at the time of this writing as per Alexa rankings) so both giants have the world’s best platforms for their particular category. The final piece of the current puzzle involves figuring out how to leverage the power inherent in both companies’ respective platforms in a way that shows users their first online destination should be one or the other. Or does it?

In short, do you start your day with Facebook or Google? Will the two start adding features the will start to really challenge the way the current landscape looks? Well, Google is now allowing users to opt-in to Social Searches and we are pretty certain a few people noticed.

Google is now releasing testing for opt-in users to try Google Social Search. The power of this new feature lies in the value we each place in the opinions of our friends.

Suppose you are looking to buy a car from a local dealer. You Google your town and the name of a particular car dealership, let’s say “Good Guys Auto Sales.” After you type that information into Google, it returns your standard results – but now, thanks to Social Search, it also looks at your Gmail account, and other social networks you have in your Google account such as FriendFeed or Twitter. If someone in your network has a blog, previous tweet, or other such content on the web relating to your search – you will see it in the results. Now, you can turn to this person in your social network and read their opinion on the particular product, service, or particular information you are researching.

Confused? This great video from Google explains it in simple terms. If you want to opt-in and start using Social Search (it’s kinda fun), go to Google Experimental and click on “Join the Experiment.”

Jason Small
Social Media and the Big W
Founder
www.SocialMediaandtheBigW.com

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