Should Search Be a Channel for Social Networking?
Now that searchers have the choice with hakia.com’s introduction of its new service, MEET OTHERS who asked the same query, we will find out. Users will tell us by either using the service or not. So far, it seems that they are finding value because our rooms are building.
The BETA launch of MEET OTHERS raised the question Is it a good idea to combine search engine with social networking? We listened to reactions and comments in the blogosphere before sharing our views and the story behind MEET OTHERS with you.
Our Internet consumption patterns are rapidly changing. Mary Meeker presented the slide below at the Web 2.0. Summit last month (you can download her presentation here) which demonstrates how quickly we have embraced social networking. The bolded text show the winners and losers. That said, today’s social networking applications primarily focus on keeping the friends or contacts we already have organized in one place so that we can better leverage our networks. Google’s OpenSocial initiative is a step toward giving users more flexibility to port their contacts and to do the things they want to do now.
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We think social networking is just getting started. Users have embraced virtual hand shakes and second lives. Couple this obversation with the fact that search is still the second most engaged in activity by Internet users after email. Conclusion: search engines should offer users a chanel to make NEW friends or NEW connections around search queries with minimal effort and no sign-ups.
We designed MEET OTHERS to connect searchers to NEW friends or business partners. Consider it social networking with the universe around you. Someone using hakia.com is already in search mode looking for information or someone to contact or to transact. Some of these exchanges are more valuable through peer-to-peer transactions. You may be looking for stories of others who are suffering from the same health problem. Or you may be looking for a sold-out concert’s tickets you can buy from someone who wants to sell his or hers before you try your chances at the door.
The Internet gives you freedom to do what you want when you want. OpenSocial is a step toward serving this demand, mostly by helping users port existing social graphs. MEET OTHERS pushes the envelope even further by providing users the freedom to meet others and make NEW friends or connections at the moment of Web search.
You are free to choose search as a channel for social networking for the first time. Try MEET OTHERS and tell us what you think!
