So, you have a question about… anything. Depending on who you are or how you operate, you are probably going to do one of two things. You are going to ask friends, family and co-workers for the answer or you are going to go directly to the internet (specifically Google). Sure, there are other options like phone books and ….. well, I don’t know. I think the vast majority of people in the world will use one of these two options. Now, thanks to Google Social Search, these two methods might begin to merge into one very useful solution.
Google Social Search is a new way to search the web. You simply Google as you always did and a new section will appear in the results, aptly titled “Results from your social circle.” These results will include more relevant, personal web content from your friends and online contacts. These links, images, blogs, etc. are taken from the social networking sites that your friends are part of, like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. We could explain it further, but this video (by the amazing commoncraft) does it so well.
Google Social Search solves some of the problems with the original “social search” (asking friends, family and co-workers):
- We can’t ask everyone we know – we want the answer pretty quickly, right?
- We will forget to ask someone – I can ask 20 people a question and the 21st person would have had the answer I needed.
- We forget what others have done – maybe a past job, trip or experience makes John Doe the perfect person to answer our question, but we forgot he even did that or went there.
Are You Prepared
If you want to get the most out of Social Search right away (or “in a few weeks”, as stated in the video), get started by creating a Google profile, where you can add links to your public online social services. The video explains how to do this, but flys by it pretty quickly. Here are the steps I took to get my profile set up.
- Visit the site http://www.google.com/profiles
- Create or view your profile (you’ll need a Google user id and password to do this)
- Choose Edit Profile (center of the screen next to “about me”)
- Fill in your information, include a photo (add or leave out what you want)
- ADD LINKS* – this is what makes the search possible! Without the links, Google Social Search is not a valuable tool.
- Save your changes
*Adding links can be a bit tricky. When prompted for the URL of a site/service you will need to provide a URL that is specific to your profile. Every social networking site is a bit different, so if you aren’t sure which URL to use, simply Google “my Facebook URL” or “my Twitter URL” or whatever service it is that you are using. The instructions should only be a few clicks away.
Big Brother
I am sure that several of you have already decided to avoid this service because you are afraid the world will have access to your personal information. I can respect your choice to protect your information, but know that the answers provided to others on Google Social Search are only available if you and that person have already “linked” to each other in Google contacts or one of the previously mentioned services. Google does not want to violate your privacy or put you in harm’s way. They simple want to bring everyone together in one centralized place. The functionality and value in the Google Social Search is only as good as the content, which you must provide.
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Tags: Facebook, Flickr, Google, LinkedIn, MySpace, Picasa, Search, Social, Social Networking, Twitter
