The Race for Social Search

On Brian Solis' blog today, I found a piece (http://bit.ly/qfKNpR) where he asks whether people will switch to Google +. I found one of the comments interesting. It describes the introduction of Google + as a defensive move. Facebook is pushing to become the new way the Internet is used. It is trying to become a gateway to content and the place for companies to advertise on the web. Google is taking the threat seriously.

Effectively Facebook is trying to build a web within the web. People are even starting to shop there. The Facebook strategy of integrating activities such as shopping, communication, photos, games into their own service is aimed to increase the number of people and the time they spend on the social network. The payback is increased ad revenues - still Google's largest source of income.

Search is becoming more social. I think that what we are seeing with the introduction of Google + is the race for social search really taking off. Effectively with Plus, Google will be able to build social graphs for users, which it can build into it's search algorithms. This is something that has been happening already. With it's huge volume of search Facebook could be in a position to start adding better search functionality. The race for social search is starting to heat up.