Yesterday, Google announced the launch of its new Google Social Search functionalities. Social search has actually been around since 2009, according to Washington Post, but if you are like me you never noticed it before. The new features are hard to miss. Now, when searching for information on Google, the top results will be sites you've visited in the past (with the date of your last visit), and will include the relevant tweets, posts, etc. from those in your social network.
As a society, we have come to rely more and more on our friends' and acquaintances' suggestions in order to make our own decisions. It's only natural to use our friends' posts to help us filter information we find through search engines.
I predict (though not surprisingly) that this will have a very real impact on politics - especially political campaigns. As voters search for information about candidates, they will be influenced by the tweets, posts and preferences of the people within their social networks. They will be less exposed to opposing points of view, and will naturally gravitate toward the information that fits their existing point of view on candidates or issues.
As with past developments that allow us to connect with others online, social search will be yet another tool to help groups organize, and influence public discourse. Of course...until Google Social Search links with facebook, its influence on me personally will be pretty minimal.
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