What is the connection between these three words? Search improves in relevance when results come from trusted sources. I have long maintained that there ain’t much “new” about new media or social media. Gathering in groups and sharing stories and experiences are among our most primal human instincts. The Internet just enables those things to happen remotely. Now I can write on my facebook wall, instead of the wall in my cave.
What’s this got to do with search? Google is great for finding out facts, locations, baseball scores and settling bar bets. But what about where to eat? What movie to go see? Which book to read? Well, in those cases, the trend online is to rely on our network of friends. See what I mean? Everything old is new again. Once upon a time you picked up the phone. Now you can connect your facebook and Amazon accounts to see what your friends are reading or watching. There are even ways to watch TV together separately.
But there are two problems, as I see it, that get worse the larger your network gets.
1- Signal to noise ratio. One of the biggest problems with sites like Yelp.com, Trip Advisor and others is you don’t really know WHO is leaving these reviews, what ax they may have to grind and whether or not the reviews are authentic.
2- If you’re a serial “friender” on facebook and find yourself with 1000+ friends, at what point do their recommendations lose value? This kind of brings you back to problem number 1, which is not really knowing your “friends” and what their tastes are. Curation is key but, alas, it may be too late if your network has spiraled out of control. And un-friending people is so gauche. (Now HERE is a case where I wish offline life more closely resembled online. Imagine if you could un-friend someone with the click of a button. But, alas, that is fodder for another post.)
Nevertheless, the trend still holds: we still ask our friends and family what they think of stuff and social networking just makes that possible at all hours of the day and night from your computer or phone.
So, what’s the best movie you’ve seen lately?
3 Responses to “Trust. Relevance. Search.”
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Gmail’s new “Priority Inbox”, where it attempts to determine which are the more valuable people and interactions, is an interesting start to filter through ones interactions. I guess Facebook approaches this challenge with its “Top News”. Either way, you acknowledge an important shortcoming of social media – one that I’m betting lots of twenty something guys in dark rooms with day old pizza and Red Bull cans everywhere are working on.
I don’t mind everything being all modern, i know times have changed but I think it’s much easier now to find a good movie, a good place to eat and about the reviews, you can find them anywhere , just look it up..
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