Is Social Search the future?

This year one of the biggest online stories was when Facebook’s traffic overtook Google, twice. This has obviously shown a shift in people’s use of the internet. They care more about what their friends are doing than they do about searching for things.

Bing is trying to capitalise on this by joining forces with Facebook to provide its users with Social Search features.

When browsing the internet using Bing, links that your friends have shared on Facebook will appear in the results. It will also show which of your friends have liked stories and links online.

To use this feature you will need to connect your Facebook profile with Bing and a box of your friends’ links will appear alongside the naturally found results and paid-for links.

What’s most interesting is that the Bing searches also work within Facebook itself.

Earlier this month rumours were circulating about Facebook creating its own search engine based around the links that its users share within the site. Could this be a tentative move from the communications platform?

I really like Bing’s use of Facebook’s open graph. It shows the links from your friends first, then from their friends and then everyone else.

Facebook blogged, saying the move makes it easier to find things your friends like online, rather than just stumbling over them while browsing.

I have tested this tool and I like the fact that you see a photo of your friends next to what they like, not just their names.

All features are activated by default once your accounts are synched up, but you can turn individual ones on and off by using the switchboard in your Facebook settings.

This is the first time a search engine has incorporated your friends’ links into its results. Google currently includes a status search in its search engine that shows Tweets and Bing updates, but I would suspect to stay competitive it will need this feature.

As we approach 2011 and Facebook increasingly becomes the place to share what you like online, it makes sense for these links to be included in your search engine results.

But with a massive decline in social bookmarking sites such as Digg, will this feature have a short shelf life as people use Facebook more than a search engine? I look forward to the answer to this question.