Google is the undisputed champ of search, but it’s much better with “head” searches than it is with “long-tail” searches — and that’s a problem. Narendra Reddy, of Wignite, says Google can address that by purchasing the expert network Quora. Read more »
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social network is already handling a billion search queries per day, and that it is interested in launching a social search engine powered by the activity of its users — something that could turn out to be Google’s worst nightmare. Read more »
Blekko, the human-curated search engine, on Thursday unveiled a new content curation site, ROCKzi, which lets people consume and socialize around the news they care about in a PInterest-like environment. Read more »
A Facebook social search engine, which is becoming more of a reality every day, would completely change the way we approach search. As an SEO specialist at The Search Agency, I’ve been closely monitoring this paradigm shift away from indexing billions of pages. Read more »
Digitalsmiths has added social recommendations to its product offering, creating a more comprehensive way for users to search and discover videos. That technology brings in real-time data from Twitter and other social networks, to help users choose shows based on what everyone’s talking about. Read more »
A team of developers led by Facebook’s Blake Ross has launched a browser plugin called “Don’t be evil” they claim presents Google’s search more fairly — but is this a war Facebook can win, or just a chance to make cheap PR points against Google? Read more »
Google and Twitter are sniping at each other over social search, but the reality is that both sides are being disingenuous. The real issue is about control over social content, and users of both services are the ones who wind up losing in the end. Read more »
This morning Google (NSDQ: GOOG) unfurled a pretty new search feature that lets users receive personalized results based on their own friend… Read more at paidContent »
Last quarter’s big headline in social media and real-time technologies came from Google, which launched Google+, its first social tech product that seems legit. In the third quarter, things were back to normal. Google+ is still growing, but Facebook’s platform update dominated the news. And as Google+ passed 25 million users and won some raves from the digerati, its competition with Facebook intensified. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Zynga, Salesforce, BranchOut and Foursquare. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google’s launch of social games for Google+ seems to have struck a nerve at Facebook, with one executive dismissing the offering as an inconsequential copycat effort. That and other moves make it clear the competition is keeping Facebook awake at night, which is a good thing. Read more »
The recently rolled out Google+ is Google’s latest effort to get a handle on something that so far has eluded the company: gaining access to the data users generate when they post status updates, share photos and comment on friends’ activities. More and more, these social ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google had a great quarter and finally has a hot social media offering. But it can’t relax on its laurels. Google faces key challenges to the growth of its search and advertising businesses that it could address with better product ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The first quarter of 2011 saw plenty of competition between various web companies — and some heated tension, too. Content farms generated the most debate, with Demand Media’s IPO attracting attention and controversy and Google making a major change to its ranking algorithm. Facebook, meanwhile, maintained its heavyweight status online, but this time the social network’s impact was centered on social search, unified communications and comment systems. And Facebook’s ongoing dominance raised the question, Is there room for more than one social network? If niche networks like Quora and Color are any indication, the answer is “yes.” Additional companies mentioned in this report include Twitter, Groupon, Microsoft, LinkedIn and MySpace. To see the full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Could Facebook’s social search patent mean that it is building an alternative to Google? If so, the social media giant will have to set itself apart in a field already crowded with big players and some innovative upstarts. Read more »
Google is finding its social legs and is launching a set of improvements to its search product that help it keep pace with rivals, who are increasingly weaving social signals into search results. Google is now including more results that are created and shared by friends. Read more »
Q&A site Quora is lately being called the savior of search and the next Facebook. But is Quora worth all the fuss? But the company is far from alone in the Q&A space, and so the question arises, is Quora really worth all its hype? Read more »
We’ve witnessed massive transformations in the ways we connect. ReSearch.ly is a new site that offers interesting–and sometimes curious and puzzling–ways of experiencing content from Twitter. ReSearch.ly’s premise is that “search is a social act which relies on trust and community.” Read more »
Facebook has started integrating social activity from the network into its search results, by showing how many people “liked” or shared a page. This is the first step in rolling out the network’s social-search engine, which could become a competitive threat for Google and other companies. Read more »
Facebook’s search results will now include all web pages that have been “liked” by users who clicked on buttons powered by the social network’s Open Graph protocol, in what is clearly the first step towards building a social search engine. But can “likes” rival Google’s PageRank? Read more »
PeerPong has reportedly raised $2.8 million for social search. The service which isn’t open to the public yet, describes itself as “an easy way to connect with the right Twitter users to get direct answers fast.” Read more »
