For those not fully familiar with social search it’s about harnessing user-generated information to help people find what they want, it’s not new online and is age old off-line where for most of us asking for people’s advice is second nature. Approaches vary and for simplicity we can briefly split them in to three separate areas. First there’s reordering or amending algorithmic search results with user input, example proponents of this are Sproose and more recently Zakta. Secondly, there’s the option to incorporate relevant updates, tweets or reviews into your search results, something Google and Bing announced recently. Thirdly there’s the ability to find people as opposed to pages who can help you find what you’re looking for, this is the approach that Aardvark and we at Cofacio have chosen to adopt. The three approaches are complimentary so while the first and second method help us define the ‘what’, the third approach might be seen more as identifying the ‘who’ we need to know

So what’s the big deal with social search? Well when Eric Schmidt claimed recently at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009 that how to rank real-time social content is “the great challenge of the age”, in my opinion it’s not so much a sign of where he thinks things are going in the future but more a recognition that traditional search no longer works for an increasing amount of the web’s content, namely user generated information on Twitter and social networks. Finding stuff is one thing but where one search engine really wins over another is in relevancy, so while Google or Bing can incorporate tweets, updates and customer reviews, the problem they face, and as Schmidt points out, is how can they rank them, how can they break through the noise and make them relevant? It’s this problem that practitioners of social search are trying to resolve, and I would argue that it’s an area where we can take 3 key learnings from Twitter and tweeters.

1. It doesn’t all have to be about the quality of the search result

When Stephen Fry talks about Twitter being social and the almost inherent need people have to be social and interact with others, this is a very important lesson social search needs to take on board. Up to now the debate has focused on the quality of the results and while it’s important to look at which method produces the most relevant results, we shouldn’t forget that collaborative social search offers further benefits that go beyond simply finding an answer. Asking other people or searching jointly is social and can be fun, and by engaging with other people as we look for things opportunities arise for cooperation. Searching with other people also helps you think through problems in different ways and allows for distributed cognition which improves cognitive processing and concept formulation. Following this through, social search solutions need to think about how people want to interact when searching, it’s adding another layer on top of the standard search experience.

2. It doesn’t need to be behind registration, people will happily search for things on an open platform

When we first sat down to look at how people would share searches we assumed that people wouldn’t be prepared to search for things openly on the web, in my mind Twitter has proved this theory to be incorrect. There’s stuff people would be wise not to discuss in public but many of the things that we look for on an everyday basis we will happily share, what’s more, we’ll happily give advice in public as Twitter has also demonstrated. What this means for social search is that we are no longer limited to solutions that leverage the knowledge base of your network, but instead we can now look to leverage the knowledge of anyone on the web. Users are not used to, and shouldn’t need to, log in to perform a search, that’s the result we found when we launched a prototype of Cofacio back in April 2009. In a similar way, the way people search on Twitter would suggest that we don’t need to display lengthy profiles and give over personal information in order to interact with other people on simple topics such as which is the best fish and chip shop in London or which play is worth watching in the West End.

3. Ranking people or people’s comments requires a different approach to how you rank a web page

Choosing whose advice to take or who to listen to on a certain topic is something quite personal, every person will have their own criteria and method for doing this. Ranking people on the basis of the amount of other people who follow them, which is similar to ranking pages on the amount of other pages that link to them, seems overly simplistic. On Twitter I’d argue that it’s a person’s behaviour, what they tweet about, as well as our assessment of their credibility based on follower numbers and their reputation that’s important when deciding whether we should listen to their advice on a particular given subject. Social search then needs to come up with ways in which the community can recognize individuals as experts on specific areas by using both explicit and implicit ratings. Other people’s opinions are important but how that person behaves is also key. This recognition system would then guide users with regards who they should listen to without limiting their ability to judge for themselves.

Concluding, there is one thing that was said at the 140 conference in London which is key, Twitter is about people, and with the rise of social media the same can be said of the internet, it’s going to be more and more about people. The result is that search engines developed to find us information and products are no longer suitable tools for this growing social web. You cannot scrape people’s profiles as if they were goods on a shop shelf and you cannot rank people as more or less relevant as if they were information. In light of this, if search companies want to be useful in this new era of the people’s web they need to reinvent themselves to some extent, I would suggest that they need to think more about people’s behaviour online, and for me there’s no better place to start than with Twitter.

Recently we ran a survey to ask users how they’d describe Cofacio to their friends and were very pleased with both the response and what people said. Here are a selection of our favourites, if you’d like to add some more then please comment below.

How would you describe Cofacio to your friends?

• A clever search networking thingy

• Sticky search

• Get other people’s opinion on something rather than google’s thoughts

• A people search engine

• A knowledge website

• A good way to find out about things that you can’t find elsewhere on the internet

• A way to get answers to your questions that your friends may not know

• A site that puts you in contact with others looking for the same as you

• Somewhere to discuss search options and discuss what you are looking for

• As a search engine and as a tool to find others searching for similar things

• A place where you can find what you are looking for based on what major websites and other people with similar interests to yours say, creating a trusted network with time

Thanks to all those who took part and we hope these prove interesting reading, we certainly enjoyed seeing how other people describe Cofacio. Oh, and as a side note, Google is none to sure if in Family Fortunes the host said our survey says or our survey said, can anyone help us out on that?

A New Social Search Engine that Harnesses the Power of People Online

A London based internet start-up is making it easier to find the right person when you are looking for help, ideas and inspiration online with the release of a new social search engine Cofacio.com.

The aim is to leverage the knowledge base of web users all over the world. Instead of asking users to join networks and communities in the hope of finding like-minded people, Cofacio simply presents users with people looking for the same or similar things as them.

A fun and social way to look for things online, Cofacio classes itself as a social search engine where people find people not pages. Founders Simeon Stewart and Darren Moore, hope that users will benefit from a sense of community and the opportunity to gain support from others.

Co-founder Darren Moore says that at present it’s a bit like casting a message in a bottle out to the world wide web, but as the site’s user base grows he is confident that those requests will reach the audience that will be able to help.

Darren says, “We’ve made the service as quick, simple and open as possible. There’s no need to sign up or create profiles to get started; something people are starting to tire of. People simply post what they are looking for, review other posts and join in conversations with others sharing similar interests or searches.”

Cofacio gives users access to the information people have instead of information that is written down. By presenting users with other people looking for the same, Cofacio’s founders think there will be a greater incentive for them to share knowledge, compare notes and  make the world a smaller, more social place.

Find Your Crowd:  http://cofacio.com/

About Cofacio:

Inspired by how people behave in their everyday lives, Cofacio aims to make finding experts, sharing ideas and listening to others an integral part in how we make decisions and achieve what we’re looking for online. The two founders of Cofacio are Darren Moore and Simeon Stewart, both have significant experience online having worked for and with leading companies such as News Corporation, Telefonica, O2, Multimap and Microsoft. Darren oversees the technology and Simeon the sales and business development.

Continuing this theme, several people have mentioned that they’d like to choose their own sock puppet avatar which is something we hadn’t considered. We think it’s a great idea and as a result we’d like to do a bit of crowdsourcing to help put the idea in practice so we’ve posted a ‘looking for ideas for Socky the puppet avatars’ on the site for people to respond to and comment on.

So far we’ve Socky and his girlfriend who is yet to be named and we’d like to add 6 more at this stage, 3 for hers and 3 for hims. Ideas to date are Father Xmas Socky in accordance with the festive season and Socky Fawkes though we think he might have gone up in smoke last week. As well as being able to see your Socky live on the site (we might even provide stats on which is most popular), we’ll be sending a real Socky to the people whose ideas we like most.

We’ve posted the question at the link below so please let us know your suggestions there. Thanks in advance and don’t forget to log in if you want the chance to receive your very own Socky for Christmas, postal strike permitting!

http://bit.ly/18oXxk

He’s struggling to find consensus on whether or not the Ferrari he is interested in is any good – he’s read some articles that say it’s got great ergonomics and some that say the opposite, you have to take the car apart every few months to fix it and some that say it can be fixed by anyone. He’s certainly confused.

So what does he do to help him make a decision?
He asks his readers. (He previously did the same thing when he couldn’t work out why his old motorbike wasn’t working.)
Guess what?
He always gets the answer.

Of course we don’t all have a column with a readership of millions; however if you post your question or problem on Cofacio, we’ll get it out there and find you the answer you need from other humans too – as James May has found out it’s more reliable and more fun too. Give it a go!

We’ve all dreamed about what we could do if we were able to foresee the future and most of us I guess would probably make ourselves rich and then work to avoid oncoming disasters in that order. So when Google announced recently that it could do just that, predict the future, it made us really sit up and take notice.

The news relates to the latest release of Google Insights which forecasts what will be searched for in the future, based upon past and current search trends. In Google’s own words Insights means that marketers can now plan future campaigns more effectively, allocating budget and resources appropriately. A compelling argument considering that everyday millions of people tell Google what they’re looking to purchase.

And it’s not only marketers who stand to benefit. Given that we also search for information on health issues, public services, transport links and education. The information we generate could potentially be used by governments to help predict economic activity and plan budgets more effectively, meaning everyone gains.

From our perspective then, full marks to Google as Insights is further evidence of them adhering to their stated intention of sharing information, the importance of which should not be underestimated. Though as a final thought, we would suggest that it’s equally beneficial when people publish there wants and needs in a more open and direct manner, something inherent in what we are doing with Cofacio.

http://cofacio.com/related-searches/Is-there-a-band-playing-at-the-Cofacio-launch-party/7608.htm

http://cofacio.com/related-searches/roald-dahl-books/7304.htm

http://cofacio.com/related-searches/Does-anyone-know-what-next-years-car-registrations-are-going-to-be/6785.htm

http://cofacio.com/related-searches/sink-mats/8273.htm

http://cofacio.com/related-searches/How-to-train-children-to-become-addicted-to-computer-games/7756.htm

I personally enjoyed holidaying in Dorset, and although we chose holiday cottages there’s also a lot of evidence of people going camping and caravanning, doing house swaps ,and even couch surfing. In fact The Times reports UK Camping has hit record levels this year, with some reports that more British people camped in the UK than visited Spain for their summer holidays.

Interestingly despite Caravanning having a dodgy reputation in the UK, with Top Gear continually bashing it’s status with episodes like the following where they burnt a caravan:

Caravanning has starting to become credible, Wifi is being added to campsites, there’s a cool Web 2.0 style camping web site called Campr, and even professional footballers like Rio Ferdinand have been staying at a Holiday Parks. In fact things are going so well for the caravanning trend-setters that the BBC even had to admit that their Caravan burning was a fake. Top Gear are still up to their anti-caravan tricks though with news of their latest stunt this time unintentionally ending in disaster as they crashed a hot air balloon carrying a caravan the other day.

For those that haven’t heard of Dopplr it’s a travel tool that allows you to share plans with your network of friends and colleagues. Rather like in work when you let people know where you’re going to be, Dopplr lets you share this information with the people you choose, not just as a way of keeping people informed but also as a means to organise your time better. If you happen to be in New York on business when your friend or business associate is too than why not meet up for dinner or arrange a quick meeting rather than kill down time on your own for example.

Askpeopleyouknow (AKYP) is a social search tool that lets you share searches with your chosen network. It’s a social network in that you need to create a profile and then invite or find friends. Once you’ve done this the idea is that can not only search the web as you would normally but also ask your network of friends if they have any ideas as well. It’s been funded by Peter Bazalgette, ex Creative Director of Endemol, amongst others so it will be interesting to see how quickly it can gain traction in an already extremely competitive search market. Getting people to give up the Google search habit is no easy task as Microsoft, Yahoo and Ask have all found out.

With regards to us, it’s great news to see value being put on both these products as they offer features and benefits that we’ve built into Cofacio.

The first is the ability to share information with other people which benefits us by allowing us to find others in similar situations so we can jointly make the most of our time and be better organised. Finding others looking for the same can open up numerous opportunities for cooperation between those two or more people as they share a common objective.

The second is the ability to ask a number of people easily and simply, without having to do so individually by phone, mail or in person. In the case of Cofacio you can ask other Cofacio users or post your query to your contacts on Facebook or Twitter. So while search engines undoubtedly provide us fantastic access to the information documented on the web, it’s worth remembering that;

1. People are great sources of tacit knowledge, i.e. information that can’t easily be transferred in writing and is better explained via conversation
2. A lot of information simply isn’t on the web and resides in people. I’m still looking for a statistic but my guess is that a minuscule percentage of the worlds information is documented, let alone made public online. Just consider the number of closed company and organisational intranets.
3. It is often other people’s opinions that help us make decisions. People we know or those we consider experts allow us to qualify information that we find and benefit from their experience and knowledge.

To end then, congratulations to Dopplr and good luck to Askpeopleyouknow. It’s always good to hear positive news about other web companies in the cooperation space and great to see such an ambitious start up as AKYP being run out of the UK.