Just days after the announcement by Bing that it began incorporating information from Facebook friends into its search results, Google countered with an announcement of its own that it will begin the rollout of its Social Search across the globe.
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Bing’s integration of Facebook’s social graph was seen by many as a big step forward for social search. On the other hand, it could be just another futile attempt to protect existing business models from the continuous disruption of social media.
Facebook search, as it is now, is a pretty messy ordeal. If I search for White Stripes, I’m presented with a few pages that are hard to distinguish or identify. Enter Bing, and it looks like they may take this to a whole new level.
If what Bing says is true, real-time search just became faster, at least in respect to Twitter. The Microsoft-owned search engine that is gaining market share is in the process of rolling out new Twitter-integrated features.
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Google has acquired Social Search provider Aardvark for $50 million, as reported minutes ago by TechCrunch. Aardvark is a service that connects people with questions with people with answers by utilizing instant messaging an email. It integrates quite intelligently with Google Chat, for instance, and the first time you sign up and ask a question, you’re immediately pinged with a friend request from the Aardvark chat bot. The fact that Google is picking them up says a lot about the type of social features they want to introduce into their products moving forward.
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Google has been attempting to compete with Facebook and the social market by attempting develop their social identity. With the releases of OpenSocial Widgets, iGoogle, Social Gadgets for iGoogle widgets and their connections of Google accounts to Youtube, Blogspot and others, the goal of a unified Google identity is certainly a feasible competitor to a unified Facebook identity. Google recently announced Google Social Search, and is attempting to make another move on the social space.
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Earlier this week I had the opportunity to sit down for lunch with Laurence Hooper and Dan Goodman, the creators of Loladex. I discussed what their new application is about. The new search service has been launched completely on Facebook. The purpose is to integrate social features into search and include reviews of local businesses. This service could build a dedicated user base just as Yelp has given the simple ability to post reviews of places you have visited.
If you look closely, Loladex has limited each of their reviews to 140 characters, the same number of characters limited to text messages. As I mentioned in conversation with the Loladex founders, it would be amazing if I could get off a plane anywhere and simply text what the best local restaurants are. The system would return the results based on what my friends have replied with.
I mentioned the same thing to D.C. based Hungry Machine previously when they launched their relatively popular Restaurants application. The best part of Loladex is that you can rate practically anything. Want to find a local doctor or dentist? Check out how your friends have rated them and get feedback. Currently I use Twitter for asking these types of questions but Loladex could bring this service to the masses.
The primary challenge for Loladex will be building an initial user base. If I can review any company that is in my community and get responses via text as well as through Facebook, I’ve found a useful service. If my friends aren’t using though it’s not very useful for me. If Loladex can build a dedicated user base I can see this application gaining a lot of traction. Considering that Loladex is based in D.C. I can only hope for their success!
