GigaOM Pro

Summary:

In our modern, highly networked lives it is getting increasingly difficult to find relevant information on the web, quickly. The 10 blue links paradigm, popularized by Google, appears to be reaching its limits. While this seek-search-and-consume methodology has become part of our basic Internet behavior and turned Google into a gazillion dollar company, it may be time for us to look for alternatives. One such alternative is social search. The idea was first floated by Yahoo nearly three years ago, but today both Google and Microsoft are jumping into the ring with social search offerings. In this note, I look at some of the major trends driving this shift in how we discover information online, and discuss the advantages that social network players like Facebook have as the new market emerges.