Comments on: Social Search http://madisonian.net/2007/07/05/social-search/ a blog about law, tech, culture, and related things Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:22:44 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Jason http://madisonian.net/2007/07/05/social-search/comment-page-1/#comment-224074 Jason Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:42:36 +0000 http://madisonian.net/archives/2007/07/05/social-search/#comment-224074 re: "I imagine that Mahalo in large part relies on Google’s and other search engine results to compile its own results." Not true. When a guide is writing their 100th search result page for something like travel, health, or products they know the best sites on the web for the vertical. They really are not going to get much from Google when doing their 101st travel SeRP--in fact, the best/most unique stuff is not going to be found on Google. The best stuff we're finding is buried deep in social news, bookmarking, and personal blogs. The obvious stuff is in Google's top 20 list... the nuggets of goodness are found on the 12th stumbleupon page, or a combination of delicious tags, or someone's myspace page. I'd say Google/Yahoo/Ask search is used re: “I imagine that Mahalo in large part relies on Google’s and other search engine results to compile its own results.”

Not true. When a guide is writing their 100th search result page for something like travel, health, or products they know the best sites on the web for the vertical. They really are not going to get much from Google when doing their 101st travel SeRP–in fact, the best/most unique stuff is not going to be found on Google. The best stuff we’re finding is buried deep in social news, bookmarking, and personal blogs. The obvious stuff is in Google’s top 20 list… the nuggets of goodness are found on the 12th stumbleupon page, or a combination of delicious tags, or someone’s myspace page.

I’d say Google/Yahoo/Ask search is used

]]> By: Mark Johnson http://madisonian.net/2007/07/05/social-search/comment-page-1/#comment-224073 Mark Johnson Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:19:44 +0000 http://madisonian.net/archives/2007/07/05/social-search/#comment-224073 Frank, your last question is an excellent one. I'd push it even further: if a search engine is simply manipulating the results feed from Google, are they creating any sustainable value? Simple front-end plays like this don't interest me, since Google can easily copy them. The only search engines that are doing something truly interesting are those that manipulate the core data being searched. Companies like <a href="http://www.powerset.com" rel="nofollow">Powerset</a> and <a href="http://www.kosmix.com" rel="nofollow">Kosmix</a> are changing the index; whereas companies like <a href="http://www.mahalo.com" rel="nofollow">Mahalo</a> are generating new data from users. Frank, your last question is an excellent one. I’d push it even further: if a search engine is simply manipulating the results feed from Google, are they creating any sustainable value? Simple front-end plays like this don’t interest me, since Google can easily copy them. The only search engines that are doing something truly interesting are those that manipulate the core data being searched. Companies like Powerset and Kosmix are changing the index; whereas companies like Mahalo are generating new data from users.

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