Google Social

We've taken steps to improve the relevance of our search results with personalization, but today's launch takes that one step further. Google Blog

Lets keep that in mind. This as much a personalization than anything, but you knew that from last time right? Of course, youre so damn clever, thats what I like about ya!


Essentially the system collects contacts/info from;

1. Google Profile (and the sites youve listed; blogs, social etc..)
2. Google Contacts/Gtalk (friends/family/etc.. and Gtalk peeps)
3. Google Reader ( the blogs/sites you follow)


This also can include secondary contacts (friend of a friend) and essentially now becomes a recommendation engine to serve up potentially relevant content from your networks.

I thought it interesting that in Matts video he refers to it as a Social Graph which obviously brings back visions of the Google Social Graph API weve been talking about the last while.

Taking Google Social Search for a spin


So what does one search? Well given that I am a search geek and much of my contacts are as well it seemed the query Google social search would be a great start;

Low and behold, it showed my own stuff and my fav fella, Bill Slawski, (connection via FriendFeed). Not bad there Google although sadly, neither was actually about the story I am after ( a little heavy on the traditional signals methinks?). And seriously, I know what Ive written take me out would ya? Undaunted, we click through to see what the rest of my network is thinking

OK, its a nice selection of my friends or people I trust. Thats good, because with my 3k Twitter followers alone, it could get messy. I seems to be more tied to my Google Contacts than anything although it picked up on my time with Collective Thoughts. BUT STILL its not the story I am after. Can I get a little QDF in there puleaaze?


It is interesting that its also picking up peeps from my Google Reader subscriptions as well as my time blogging at Collective thoughts;

#$%#$&$% Dammit!!! I want friggen news about this very app I am using if you dont mind. Sigh theres might be an issue here. Specifically, the freshness of the results I am seeing and the way Google is deciding to weight the actual results isnt quite there yet.

One thing is certainly evident; it is pulling blog posts in most cases from the people in my social circle. Not really as much social mentions or articles/pages theyve shared. I also tried an exact match, with little success (it found a few older posts on it)

Ok, since it likes to look at some longer distance results, I decided to stop busting its Real-Time-Balls and try a query thats not-so-fresh. But at the same time a space I am familiar with a usable SERP so we try; Link building services

Lets say Im looking to outsource and was curious what my circle had to say(thats intent peeps).

Ok, starts ok with a few peeps I might not think of, but trust immensely. Although its odd how it seems to think I have a thing for Ann wtf? This time around its pulling the pages from their site(s) and connected via FriendFeed (and even nails the query). What else do we have?

That part was a bit hit and miss really so we can see that the relevance isnt exactly where Id want it. Just for fun I also looked at exact match and a few other approaches, alas, the results were still not effective.

This seemed to be universal in that even a search for such popular topics as H1N1 or odd ones like, dinner in New York, seemed to not really bring back much as far as targeting is concerned. Oh there were results, just not real tight on the relevancy so far



Better friend management puhleeeeeaze


What we can see as it stands, is kinda anti-climactic (but I've been playing in implicit feeback, soooo). I do like the idea of it all, but as with many things at Google over the last while, its seems unpolished and somewhat architecturally unstable. It is just a babe remember. Google social search, Wave and other improvements, once more teach is that 'this thing of ours' is an ever evolving beast. That's what keeps it fun.

They do need to give us a better way to manage our friends/contacts, that's a given. They tell us to use our Google Profiles as the base, as well as our contacts (Gmail, FriendConnect and Reader) but there is no easy way to add new peeps or effectively manage users in a single interface.


Actually, it seems my contacts in FriendConnect arent even part of the mix. Erm.. DUH, thats YOUR social network Google!! Make it easier dammit! How do I add people???

The early take on things


What else can we take from some early mucking about? After only a few hours at play, there are a few things Id certainly think could make things better (beyond a more robust user management system);

1. Need a way to throttle the effect a given user has on rankings
2. Need to be able to weight services/sites (or remove without removing from my profile)
3. A way to remove sites (much like Search Wiki)
4. Better contacts/friends management (or did I mention that already...hehe)
5. Stronger weighting for contacts shared items (not just their own sites, shared items too)
6. Add non-direct contacts (such as peeps Im following in Reader or those I deem influencers)


Now, there are certainly some things to like heresuch as;

1. Might also work well in concert with Wave
2. Adds yet another avenue to this years Search Options
3. Doesnt encourage follower whoring (always big lol)
4. Doesnt initially draw eyeballs from main SERP
5. Gives SEOs new targeting options (2010 is the year of Granular!)
6. Can benefit outreach programs
7. The potential the potential and the potential.


Another problem is; do most end users actually want to participate in crafting their SERPs? Traditionally search engines have had a tough time getting explicit user feedback and thus the ongoing interest in the implicit data (as much of this is based on). That type of data can be somewhat unreliable, as can be seen in this early incarnation.


I'd be ever so interested in knowing some usage numbers (adoption levels) for explicit elements such as SearchWiki and SideWiki...and others. If they can swing it, the elephant in the room just grew some more.



What does it mean?


This is NOT real time search as such we may have not heard the last from Google and Twitter as new bedfellows. This is more of an added layer to go along with the other new options and verticals that weve seen this year. Real time search is still not going to be overly threatened by this release in my opinion.


As for our never ending search for meaning, some thoughts come to mind;

* It's almost a vertical, wont easily be confused with reg results " which means dont take your eyes off the prize that is your standard SERP

* Relevance or targeting content as important as always " you want Google to KNOW what the page is about. Balance targeted and link bait/hype TITLEs.

* Google says links and other standard signals still in play - according to Matt, relevancy signals still are in effect. (Although early testing finds efficacy debatable)

* Get lots of contacts? Eeeeww.. Target influencers " I cant see grabbing up contacts and spamming them as viable. Begin to incorporate the model into your outreach programs instead.

* Social Search adds extended social circle people " this also means that strong networks become more important. If your contacts are spammers, it may spill over to your contact/followers. New rep management implications

* Also worth considering is socializing the content " it might be worth while to get your social interactions on the site. Considering that so far its largely blog posts/articles, not actual microblog content, bring your goodies on site (Tweets, import FriendFeed). This should add an extra layer.

* Get the gadget " while FriendConnect might not be influencing things now, it may at some point. Consider adding the gadget to sites as appropriate.


What I'd be looking to do, as with local, as with any vertical, is increase our visibility (when it makes sense). From what we do know now, and what we may see in the future, this is going to ultimately be another avenue for increased content syndication (and links if youve done it right). Googles Social Search certainly gets a passing grade. If not for what it can do now, but for the potential it holds (can you say Google Wave?). For now I shall reserve judgement til it matures, and I have more time to much about.


We're going to have to broaden our contacts and see what power this puppy holds As such, since the FriendConnect gadget here on my blog doesnt work with GSS, be sure to get hooked up with me via FriendFeed or Twitter


Next thing I want to do is look at the profiling patents to see how Google might use this data on the monetization side of things..


Until then heres some more readin' for the obsessed;

Follow the trail

Google Social search is now live!

Google Social Search; the potential for personalization

Why Googles behavioural targeting should creep you out

Can Google be a social search engine?

Making sense of real-time social search

Other Coverage

Google Blog

Google Support

Read Write Web

Search Engine Land

The Noisy Channel

Comments

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