Google CEO Eric Schmidt commented on the integration of Google’s Orkut social networking service into Google search results withing the year. CNet reports that Schmidt, speaking at the PC Forum conference in Scottsdale, AZ, announced the intended move without a set timeframe, adding that “most products stay in beat for about a year.”
Schmidt further commented on the reasoning for intertwining social networking (connecting with friends of friends and even industry experts in an online private social setting) and search results being that they fit perfectly together. One reason being that Orkut and Google search complement each other because it allows such searchers and users to connect directly with experts in the field of their searches, inturn providing more information than the average web page search may deliver.
Schmidt commented that “One of the problems with search is you can’t find people,” said Schmidt. “We believe that these social networks will have a tremendous amount of information.”
Currently Eurekster, a search engine/social network hybrid, offers “social searching” – the ability to monitor the search results of people that you have networked or connected with, along with the ability to meet others who have the same searching preferences as oneself.
