Perhaps, search itself will be different completely as we know it today. For certain things, we will use semantic search and for other things social search. For example, if I am looking for a product like a car, I would most likely turn to my social circle for information. If I was searching information about Oil digging, I might do a semantic search. I guess I see it as facts = semantic search vs opinions = social search.

I’m afraid that my post did not hit home. I am suggesting that social search will be a search in my social network. Not the world. So in your example, I would make a search for “i-phone” but rather than seeing what everybody is saying on Twitter, I would be able to just look at what my friends are saying on Twitter.

Something like the Facebook Search that was announced recently.

It would be exactly what you said, a search of the collection of RSS I decided to subscribed to + twitter people I follow + LinkedIn contacts + Facebook Friends, etc.

I stumbled on this website called Aardvak. I believe this would be the primitive version of social search. I like their idea and I like what they are doing. I think they have a lot of potential. I don’t see them becoming a Facebook or a Google. I actually expect them to be eaten by one of them because I don’t believe they have the population to make it relevant nor do I see them gaining enough grounds. Unless they get huge funding and they can invest millions into members acquisition.

I will keep an eye out on them. You should check it out, it is pretty interesting. I will try and take some time to write about them.

I just tried the twitter search, with “i-phone” as keyword. This are the first three entries:

BeckywalshRn Let’s be honest…. Last full day off. Listening to guitar talk…. Thank god for the I phone

alsj picked up my new toy this week my HTC Magic Google phone. cooler than an I phone any day

JeroenGr87 @rickvanv Waarom heb ik nog steeds geen Flash op mijn I-Phone? Zucht…

Not interesting to me at all… even not all in a language I can read. Hence, I’m wasting my time. Of course when looking for “i-phone virus” I got, in the first links, some scary messages and two links to information, but since I don’t know that people I can’t tell if it’s reliable information.

So if i’m looking for what people thinks, I rather use RSS and follow the people I’m interesting in than to try a random search. As you said, if I’m missing something important I will get it from facebook, twitter… this is, from my own social network. As example, I know you and trust the information you share, and that’s how I learn about the i-phone virus, through your facebook status.

But yeah, I agree adding in the search engines the option like “hey, this link is matches better what you are looking for, but I have found that a lot of people in facebook is sharing this other link, so it may be interesting too”.

In any case, all this leads to the fact that people needs to be reeducated on how to use internet and search engines. Most of people doesn’t even use the magic of GoogleNews when looking for articles.