On October 1st, I wrote a blog entry called The "Socially-Enabled" Search War: Facebook vs. Google and the "Like" Button. What I talked about - "social search" - is heating up! Today, Facebook and Microsoft's search engine Bing announced that they're teaming up to provide a personalized search experience using Facebook Instant Personalization. That means when you search for say a seafood restaurant in San Diego, you'll get the usual Bing results, plus results with a Facebook icon to indicate restaurants your Facebook friends like. More details on Mashable.

It's all based on Facebook profiles and "Like" data. (Hey, maybe LinkedIn should do a similar arrangement but from a business perspective, like when searching for a new project manager, recommendations from people in your network will show up). Next are plans to show search results from "experts" along with friends and the usual results. I see a social, connection-based internet (most likely some form of Facebook) becoming the default interface for the whole internet. Lots of major assumptions about friends, affinity and social judgement underneath this growing trend. What do you think about all this? And of course, what do YOUR friends think?!

There was a great story on PBS's Marketplace today about how over 2 million websites have added Facebook's Thumbs Up "Like" button to their pages in the last six months. Some call it the "one button survey." When you click the "Like" icon, say for a story on New York Time's website, or a new drink on Pepsi's website, you're providing the company access to your data and your friends' data.

The whole marketing dynamic is reversed. Essentially, we're shouting to companies "I like you. Pay attention to me! And bonus... here's a bunch of people like me you should also pay attention to. And double bonus, I'll tell my friends that I like you so that they can like you too. "

The next step is making it easy for your friends to see all the things you like. Which is the challenge for Google. Google search is based on the idea that people like seeing the most popular results. But as more and more of the web becomes "socially-enabled," people may prefer to see what their friends recommend, more than what search results are most popular. Looking for a good local restaurant? Will you go with what your friends like, what Yelp tell you, or what Google says?  What about searching for a doctor? 

I predict all forms of "recommendations" will have their place, depending on the product category. But friends' endorsement will have the edge- at least for things you think your friends know about!

P.S. Check out the bottom of this blog entry just below here...