socialmedian: Why There's Nothing to Fear in Social Search

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Why There's Nothing to Fear in Social Search

Source: ReadWriteWeb

Oct 27, 2009

Summary

Social search was in the news this past week when Google and Bing announced that they would be getting access to the Twitter fire hose. A flurry of subsequent posts speculated on what this "social search" would entail, and some expressed concerns over privacy and spam.

But social search is not something to be afraid of. It's really just an extension of behaviors that we're used to in the real world, brought online, thanks to the advent of real-time social computing.

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First, people have sought help from others for search problems and information-seeking tasks for a long time. Prior to the Internet, this was our primary way of getting information. We either asked a librarian to help us find something or, prior to that, we talked to each other to spread information and seek help. We can reasonably treat this current trend in social search as a return to that familiar state.

Secondly, social search is no scarier than the Web itself. Social search will not make you easier to find. If you're the type of person whose social network data appears in search results,

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