Earlier this year Microsoft’s search engine Bing introduced a “social search” feature with the slogan “It’s amazing what you can do when your friends becomes a part of your search”. Google did the same when they debuted the new search tool that draws results from their social media Google+. As icing on the cake Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s development of a search engine last week. There’s no doubt that social search is growing and if/when Facebook’s search engine is introduced, social search will take a giant leap forward.

The idea of making the search social is to get relevant information quickly and easily find out what your friends think about it. If I for example type in “Activities in Vancouver”, my friend’s photo album “Weekend in Tofino”, another friend’s movie “Skiing in Whistler”, and how many likes Vancouver Art Gallery have, would pop up next to the relevant web pages.

I believe it’s a natural step forward in today’s Internet based world, but I’m doubtful of my opinion. In the area of e.g. travel I can see myself having great help of a social-search, but I am also afraid that the great amount of different opinions will make it harder for me to make up my own.