Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy, Revised and Updated

SOCIAL SEARCH

Social search28 and real-time search29 are buzzwords that have made their way into the search landscape. Both terms have at their core the rise of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Initially, the hype was around recommendations from friends. Why search Google and get information from potentially unreliable strangers when you can search your social graph and get advice and recommendations from your personal social circle? So far, although we are using social networks more and more often for advice and recommendations, as noted in Chapter 9, we haven’t started using search less often. This was true when I wrote the first edition of this book in 2009 and remains true now in late 2011. Search volume has continued to grow30 (Figure 10.9) and is used by 90 percent of online Americans versus 47 percent who use social media31 (Figure 10.10).

Figure 10.9 Search Volume 2009 vs. 2011

Source: comScore

Figure 10.10 U.S. Internet Usage

Source: PEW Internet & American Life Project

Much of the search-related value of social networks is focused on:

• Real-time information (posts on social networks tend to be relevant for topical queries): If you want to know how everyone else feels about Lady Gaga’s latest outfit as she walks down the red carpet of the Grammy’s, ...