Finding Content via Facebook, LinkedIn

Jeremiah Owyang in his recent post on the identity implications of Facebook asks:

"...will we rely on personal social network features (what do my friends think and recommend) over search?"

I think the answer is unquestionably yes - getting recommendations, information, news, etc is a function that is deeply embedded in carbon based social interactions and it will be a model that takes over online. I'm still very new to Facebook, but it is already an excellent source of new content flow and I imagine it will only increase in value as a pointer platform.

The questions feature in LinkedIn also provides an example of how access to content can be mediated by/through a social network.

I recently posted a question regarding mortgage brokers to LinkedIn and quickly received a number of useful responses. Those responses represent a "search result" that is delivered via an established social network  and I'm sure results delivered this way will be more useful and harder to game than machine generated algorithms. 

More important, the content that comes through a social network is inherently more operational.  Take a look at the search results for "mortgage broker" in Google - what's your next step from that page? The process of triaging Google results for a worthwhile lead is painful

It is very difficult to assess credibility and quality in Google results and that is the opportunity for social communities to become a primary source of content  - especially for the mass market of Internet users.

Comments

[Sean Scott]

That's an interesting point about Linkedin and facebook answers being the next generation of search at least in the sense that the results are highly qualified results from people.

The first to be able to automate the process will win this next search race. Say for example if Linkedin correlated your recommendation with your profession, it could for instance if you were a real estate agent with 8 recommendations bring you up when someone searched for real estate agent in your are that come recommended.