Social search is all about trust
January 28, 2008 — Tim NashWhen StumbleUpon started integrating there results into Googles they effectively changed the way I search. If I’m presented with 10 results I am now more likely to click through to a site with a StumbleUpon review and in particular if it has a friends review.
I have an inbuilt trust of stumblers even if they are strangers over Google strange that!
Given the choice I value a Stumblers opinion more then any ranking factors
The problem of course when that trust is abused, If I do a search for credit cards I’m presented with 3 stumbleupon reviews on the front page. Now I have to ask myself are credit cards sites really interesting enough to warrant a thumbs up? Even if it’s the best deal? particularly if they have just one stumble?
Now in the above scenario the reviews were not done by my friends so I’m less likely to trust them and StumbleUpon quite rightly makes the result more discreet. But what if they had been one of my friends? Would I have clicked then?
The answer – Of course I would if I recognised the name then I would have clicked the link, sure they may have been paid to thumb it, they might be running a social media optimisation it might be there site or an affiliate link. But even if it was any of those barring the first I wouldn’t feel bad about clicking the link. My friends on the whole are not spammers even if they are optimisers I trust them.
Is trust worth more then rankings? I think so but do you?
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January 28, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I did a similar post a couple of weeks ago title “Will Trust Kill the Algorithm” where I discuss Google’s move into social media.
Could be that Google sees the writing on the wall. Trust will win out in the long run.
January 29, 2008 at 3:24 am
Agreed Tim, in fact I suspect this is the direction search in general is going. Integrating WOM (word of mouth) into search results, and Stumble provides a great forum for that. As you mention, some retraining will likely be required. Food for though for Google though huh? Should they attempt to purchase Stumble from Ebay? Wouldn’t it be something if Yahoo beat them to it … and Yahoo already owns Delicious.
January 29, 2008 at 5:37 am
Is trust worth more than rankings? Are conversions worth more than traffic?
BTW, I also pay attention to those SERP stumble reviews - damn smart integration from the SU team. Puts them way ahead of Digg, imho.
January 31, 2008 at 4:53 am
Tim, great post. Trust is worth slightly more than rankings.
February 8, 2008 at 12:07 pm
@Richard Interesting Article
@Jeff I think Google will no doubt think totally outside of the box cloning stumbleupon failed (dice) but they must see the value in social search
@Gab Is trust worth more then rankings is an interesting one, after all by ranking well I will see the result first and so if it has been stumbled I will see that review first, so ranking well is still essential but so is trust.
@Jake sorry for the delay your comment was gobbled into Akismet hell