“Who ARE these people?”

This was my initial reaction when I heard about all of these sharing features being added to the process of searching.  Who is sending their queries out across the Internet, forming “groups” and “circles,” “crowds” and “communities?”  Who is stopping to vote on every web page they land on?  And who’s sharing their bookmarks and favorites, or, even more mysteriously, checking out other peoples’? 

But to chat with other searchers, or IM them, poke, Skype or twitter them?  Who’s doing all of this social networking, who’s got time for that much extra work and that many interruptions?  Are teenage girls now running the Internet?  Because most of the people I know are w-o-r-k-i-n-g. They are b-u-s-y.

Our sponsor, Hakia, just released a new feature called “Meet Others.”  When you type a query into the search box, it gives you the option of reaching out to other Hakia users who have asked that same question.  When Richard took a look at this feature at over on Read/WriteWeb, he was prompted to wonder, “Does Search need social networking features?”

The better question is, “Do YOU need social networking features?” 

Before we answer that, let’s break out the essential elements of a typical search.  The one that I just asked Hakia was “What is Absinthe?” (and “Is it legal now in the US?  Where can I buy some?”) 

The second stage is the results of that query.  Let’s say the traditional list of 10 links.

The final stage is “the answer,” the web page that we are happiest with.

With the tremendous variety displayed in the Top 100 Alternative search engines, you, the searcher can chose for yourself just when, where, and how social or solitary your search will be.

Let’s take the first extreme, Solitary Search.  I don wanna talk to nobody!  Easy.  I can choose practically any search engine; I can’t think of a single one that would share my query (What is Absinthe?) -identifying me- with other people without some action on my part. So step one is 100% solitary.

When the results are returned, I scan over them, looking for signs of a good hit, or I can impact the results – by myself.  A new search engine that we just introduced, NeXplore, has a “trash” button if I feel like deleting bad results.  Google might look at my search history and do some very similar rearranging without necessitating any action from me.  Another Alt, SurfCanyon, currently in private mode, will introduce yet another way for the user to rearrange the SERPS.

     “Only a quality site reviewed by real people can move up.”

Now, let’s assume I’ve done all the skimming and rearranging that I care to, and I settle on a great Absinthe webpage.  Do I want to share this great site with other people?  I could.  Some Alts would let me vote it up so that others -either a defined set of friends or the entire user base for that search engine- benefit from my find. (Sproose, AfterVote)

Now for me, I would search, sort and store away my work almost entirely on my own, since my work dictates that I sift through so many results so often that I can’t afford to be slowed down by “sharing.”  But having said that, whenever I find something really good, I copy the URL into a email and send it off to Kaila (pronounced Ky-la) or others on my email list.

And for me, that’s the key, with each “find,” I select exactly who I share it with by choosing them one by one from my email list.  It’s never the same group twice.

But for more social types, there is plenty of action on the other extreme as well.  At stage one, the query, that does not have to be just between you and a search box, you can go, as I just did, to Yahoo! Answers, and ask a million people your question – super size it!  Or, with Hakia, you can broadcast your query and see who else has asked that same question and hey, you might make a new friend or get a better answer!

Or, if you did use a search engine like Sproose, Searchles, or Youlicit, you can provide feedback on your finds that will affect your “community” or “circle” or possibly the whole index.

And in the last stage of finding that good site, you can bookmark it and then share your bookmarks/favorites.  You could incorporate it into your FaceBook page, or digg it, IM, Skype or twitter it away.  This last stage of sharing one’s music, funny videos and photos seems strongly bent towards the younger crowd.

 So what about Meet Others?  Well, this would allow you to control when you felt like sharing your query and when you didn’t.  It’s really that simple, you might not feel the need while at work, but at home might want to chat with someone else who recently queried “Where can I find a wolf breeder?”  The benefit is that extra information that sometimes only a flesh and blood person can provide.  For example, what if they met a fantastic breeder, wouldn’t it solve your Search in the best possible way to go from your query to a knowledgeable, fellow Hakia Meet Others user?

Conclusion:

The bottom line is that with a new Web 2.0 social application coming out every other day, and with over 100 alternative search engines to chose from, each with a variety of features, the searcher -not of the future- of today can choose exactly when they share their search, how much of it they share, and with whom they share it.

The downside is I don’t know of one location where there is a dashboard flexible enough for you to control all of these variables from one site, but I have no doubt that sometime in 2008 they will have worked that out as well, perhaps by wrapping it all up in Baagz and Twine!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Guest Authors, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.