The killer application for the Internet has been search. While social media may not topple search from its throne, it has created a new center of gravity for content. The more content that social media generates, the more it needs to be searched...Or maybe not.
And here's where the core question for product managers and product marketers raises its head: What is the user trying to do? Thus far, the fundamental assumption behind Internet search design has been, "Users understand keywords, but nothing else." The clever algorithms behind Google or Bing base search results exclusively on what you are trying to find. The ubiquitous text box where you enter keywords doesn't ask you why.
The rapidly-growing pile of user-generated content, stacked next to the still-growing pile of standard material, may change search design. For example, if I'm looking for information about the White Stripes, I might be happy to get their official web site, the relevant Wikipedia entry, and maybe a few places where I can buy their CDs. I don't necessarily care that someone with the Twitter ID sirburpsalot proclaims his unrequited passion for Meg White every day, or that there's a lively discussion about the Jack White/Rolling Stones connection in a Facebook group. At another time, that may be exactly the content I want to read. (Except for sirburpsalot, who's just an annoying twit.)
Declaring the purpose behind the search, or the kind of content I want to skim, is an increasing necessity. Of course, that raises all kinds of questions about the federated search architecture that's needed to make these declarations possible, which has echoes in the old-school, inside-the-firewall search challenges. There's always a good argument for being able to search your e-mail, documents, contacts, expense reports, performance reviews, and office supply orders all at once, but in many organizations, the implementation cost outweighed the business benefits. If you want to find out the status of your order for 100 mechanical pencils, go to the self-service office supply application.
For similar reasons, a lot of user-generated content may not get hooked into Internet search the way some people might expect, or hope. There needs to be a business argument for both Google and Facebook for one to be able to search the other in some new fashion. All of which makes this paragraph critical in the InfoWorld article covering this topic: A music label, for example, would be interested in searches on YouTube,
she said. MySpace, meanwhile, focuses on searches for people, while
LinkedIn is about business searches, Dougherty added. "The actual
content that's happening on each of the social networks is very, very
different in terms of the searches that are happening," she said.
For product managers involved with social media or search, the use cases for search have a direct impact on the product roadmap and feature prioritizations. For the product marketer, these same use cases are the language that you need to speak to convey value.
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