This whole article is predicated on "social search" being better than pagerank-scored search, which is only sometimes the case.
Sometimes I care what my friends think about a search query, e.g., "sushi restaurants near foo." It might help me to know that my friend Bob, who I trust, has been somewhere and thought it was good.
Sometimes I do not care at all what my friends think about a search query, e.g., "medulla oblongata." In fact, showing results that my friends might have liked in connection with that phrase may distract from the scientific information I am looking for, especially if they are pages of quotes from Fight Club.
Being able to distinguish this intent, and putting a good UX on top of it, is what Facebook needs to do to make a significant entry into the search market. (I'm not holding my breath.)
Honestly, even the sushi restaurants example is questionable to me. I think a better algorithm would check to see what/what kind of restaurants I liked in the past, compare that with other people with similar taste, and give me a suggestion. Netflix recommendation for food.
It's what I've always wanted from Yelp and Urban Spoon, but never got. It seemed like Google's Hotpot was going there, but that seems to have fizzled. I guess it's not one of the arrows that Larry Page chose.
But back to the point, that's not a social algorithm. It's not a page-rank one either, but I'd expect Google to be better at this than FB.
Sometimes I care what my friends think about a search query, e.g., "sushi restaurants near foo." It might help me to know that my friend Bob, who I trust, has been somewhere and thought it was good.
Sometimes I do not care at all what my friends think about a search query, e.g., "medulla oblongata." In fact, showing results that my friends might have liked in connection with that phrase may distract from the scientific information I am looking for, especially if they are pages of quotes from Fight Club.
Being able to distinguish this intent, and putting a good UX on top of it, is what Facebook needs to do to make a significant entry into the search market. (I'm not holding my breath.)