Nickname: networkgiant

Review: A similar tool/article was available two years ago or even earlier: http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/071404/Messenger_taps_social_nets_071404.html

Date reviewed: May 26, 2006 9:58 PM

Nickname: Hula Dog

Review: Hello, we're attempting to build a hybrid Web site comprising an online catalog and social space. ( see huladogfashions.com ) Is there any social networking and social search software available that we can use to offer these features? peter@huladogfashions.com

Date reviewed: May 11, 2006 6:53 PM

Nickname: Logomachist

Review: I am puzzled by this article. I read the whole thing but I still don't understand what "social search" is. Is it a system to bias search results toward pages your "friends" have already looked at? Does it judge your friends according to your IM buddy lists, group affiliations you've signed up for, automatically according to your bookmarks, or through a list people you provide to the Web site, or e-mail addresses from your address book? Or is social search a system of distributing questions to your friends (and others) and waiting for replies? They're two completely different approaches toward getting information. Obviously the usefulness of the search would vary widely according to how they figure your friends and what they do with the information.

Date reviewed: Apr 25, 2006 11:50 AM

Nickname: search master

Review: If what Collarity (www.collarity.com) claims actually works or even partially works, it will undoubtedly set a process towards a new level of relevancy that combines personalization and community models to achieve the goal of intelligence behind search. It will be really interesting to see how those guy's engine evolves. Does anyone know anything about these guys?

Date reviewed: Apr 24, 2006 12:49 PM

Nickname: Social guy

Review: The new generation of search will have to bring the search's preferences and desires back to the equation if not to the driver's seat. Pathetic attempts style Del.icio.us (now Yahoo) will not work, since what is required is 100% participation of all searches in collaborative filtering. Promising approach that I saw in action is a solution (still under beta) from a startup company www.collarity.com, where the collaboration is implicit (and thus natural and includes all participants), communities are created dynamically to reflect common users' interests, and the level of personalization is controlled by the searcher. It's a solution with the ingredients necessary to build true relevancy and personalization.

Date reviewed: Apr 22, 2006 2:49 AM

Nickname: Luke

Review: As the article mentioned, it's important for Microsoft to take advantage of its large base of MSN users, which can be explored for creative social search among friends. For the protection of privacy, the technology should allow social search without disclosing who provides any particular information. Being able to organize more specific contents, social search seems to be a more sophisticated technology. The difficulty is still how to effectively gather user data.

Date reviewed: Apr 16, 2006 6:34 PM

Nickname: RobotsThink

Review: Some really good points, jbelkin. No matter what Microsoft does it can never win the battle in Web technologies. It sold a stupid OS to people with no choice at that time and now they are stuck with it. Its days are over and sooner it will be turned from M$ to M? because what they do in the name of R&D is simply copying. GNU/Linux and Google will bang it very badly. But I am sure if Google would have revealed its technologies Microsoft would have copied them and released it to the public with big publicity as if they had "developed" it. Ingenious. Hehe.

Date reviewed: Apr 15, 2006 7:50 PM

Nickname: t.a. mccann

Review: Asking other Web users is the key. For one of the best examples, check out www.helpshare.com.

Date reviewed: Apr 15, 2006 4:31 AM

Nickname: PK

Review: Nice article about search innovation without even mentioning the new "tools" campaign from ask.com. Interesting.

Date reviewed: Apr 15, 2006 2:13 AM

Nickname: jbelkin

Review: Sounds like typical MS brainless thinking ... okay we have a search engine that's losing marketshare fast - how do we make a splash ... what's the most popular thing going on now - social networks - that's it! We'll combine the two! So, how is it different than posting a question on Metafilter? You really envision millions of people sitting around waiting for people to ask them questions? Or, do I really want all my friends to see me search on if you think you took too much Viagra? Or would you want to sign up as an expert on Viagra overdose situations? The problem with MS is Bill Gates & Steve Ballmer have no real interest in what consumers normally do or want to do - they are brilliant at selling big deals to agencies & enterprise - the rest - nah.

Date reviewed: Apr 14, 2006 10:30 PM