Google released its Zeitgeist list for 2007 of fastest rising and fastest falling search terms

The No. 1 fastest growing search term in both the U.S. and globally this year was ‘iphone.” But No.2 globally was London-based social networking site “badoo,” instead of “webkinz” in the U.S. “Badoo” didn’t even make it onto the U.S. list. Other terms that made the top-ten globally but not domestically: “dailymotion,” ebuddy,” “second life,” and “hi5

Algorithm search itself is social because fundamentally search engines reflect human bias in the form of programmer choices. They determine what’s quality and what’s spam. Search engines also observe human behavior like click paths, popular URLs, etc and use this information to modify their algorithms. As of late, we’re even seeing new personalization efforts to refine search for everyone.

A major factor is that many, if not most, of the players in social search are leveraging the work of volunteers

The problem with social search is the scale and scope.

see people trusting other people’s judgment

Trust networks are going to evolve, and we’re going to see increased personalization and user control over result filtering. We’ll be able to say I don’t want results from Site X, I want them from Site Y. Social search will work best for non-text content like photos, music and video.

Seth built Squidoo because he saw a need for human beings to create a post search engine filter. Users can use Squidoo has a launching pad to find what they are ultimately looking for.

The right thing to do is to open up the deep pages of your site and expose the stuff that’s not getting attention. Don’t do it yourself; have your fans, readers, and the people who buy from you to build out the content. If they built out content because they like you, they’re putting relevant and meaningful content in front of potential customers.

He defines social search as a knowledge that you use to guide you into a region of what you want.

If you want to find exact, encyclopedia-like information, then a traditional engine will help you, but it’s not going to take you to the region of knowledge you’ll have in front of you through a social engine. The Web is static. If you have knowledge (education, experience, etc) you can guide and give what the user wants.

The future of search is the integration of social knowledge to guide you to the right community.

three ways Yahoo is using social search:

The different between Flickr and regular search is that you can take human interaction into account, which therefore makes the pictures are more engaging.

how many people use del.icio.us and 75 percent of the audience raised their hand – that’s pretty impressive given the geeky nature of the product.

He does a search for “nyc hotel�? and shows how the results that appear on del.icio.us are considerably more relevant than what you’d find from a traditional engine.

Yahoo Answers: Answers enables you to ask as question and the community will answer. It’s about people helping people

The main problem with social search is that there’s no way to track who said what.

The motivation that drives people to share is noncommercial interest in helping each other and sharing information. Introducing a financial incentive changes that and it makes it participating solely about the financial incentive. Once this happens people will start worrying about not getting paid enough instead of producing quality content. Going down the path of paying people is a really risky path you can’t reverse and it changes the dynamic of the communities.

The other thing money changes is that it eliminates anonymity. If there’s money on the table, you know who’s producing the content. Seth says anonymity is the worst part of the Web.

money almost destroyed the quality of the search engines.

Book Description

How many times have you run a Google search that resulted in thousands of results? With over 8 billion pages online and more posted every day, the Web more than likely contains the information you’re looking for — if only you could find it. In Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web, Internet-search-engine expert Tara Calishain makes researching more efficient and rewarding for anyone for whom the Web is an indispensable tool — academics, journalists, scientists, and professionals, as well as bloggers, genealogists, and hobbyists. She does so by teaching the latest techniques for building automated information-gathering systems. As an alternative to the typical one-time search for information, Tara demonstrates how readers can use RSS feeds, page monitoring tools, and other software to set up information streams of many different data types — from text to multimedia to conversations — for capture and review.





About the Author

Tara Calishain is the creator of ResearchBuzz, an award-winning Web site covering the world of Internet research, with more than 2,000 pointers, articles, and reviews related to search engines, databases, and online information collections. Tara has written and co-written a number of search-related books, including the award-winning Web Search Garage, the New York Times bestseller Google Hacks, and the Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research.

Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web

Search Engine Submission Tips

This section of Search Engine Watch (formerly called A Webmaster's Guide To Search Engines) is primarily for webmasters, site owners and web marketers. It covers
search engine submission, placement and marketing issues. It explains how search engines find and rank web pages, with an emphasis on what webmasters can do to improve
their search engine rankings by properly submitting, using better page design, HTML meta tags, and other tips.

If this is your first visit, it's recommended that you read the pages in this section in the order shown. That will best introduce you to the important concepts of
search engine submission and optimization. Navigational links at the bottom of each page will allow you to easily load the next one.

Essentials of Search Engine Submission