• by joe.h , Bob Heyman , December 15, 2006

This month's Search Innovation Spotlight falls on social search, sometimes also called Web 2.0 search or third-generation search.  Much funding has followed the premise that the next big thing is to harness the power of communities to generate more relevant search recommendations.  There are so many companies doing exciting things that what follows is just part one of a two-part article reporting on this niche.

Yoono describes itself as "instant people-rated Web," meaning, that when you surf, Yoono displays a list of Web pages that others have classified as "favorites."  There is a "surprise" button that generates a random suggestion based on your favorites.  In the Yoono toolbar for IE there is the option of subscribing to another user's shared favorites folder.  When the user adds to the folder, you'll be informed of what he or she has added.

Gravee is a social search application that differs from others in that it is trying to change the economics of search by sharing advertising revenue with content owners, with a rev-share business model.  The site shares up to 70% of all ad revenues with the natural listings that appear on the same page when an ad occurs, as well as with the referring Web site.

Jookster is a community-driven social search tool that works primarily through the browser toolbar. Jookster collects photos, video and bookmarks from sites like YouTube, Flickr and del.icio.us into one place that can be searched, saved and shared with friends.

 StumbleUpon employs user ratings to form collaborative opinions on Web site quality with the goal of helping you "stumble upon" great sites.  When you "stumble," you only see pages that friends and like-minded "Stumblers" have commented on. 

 Otavo describes itself as not just a search engine, but a community of users and staff members who participate in your quest to find answers quicker.  As an Otavo user, you can ask any question or seek a quest of your choice.  Among the active "quests" we found on Otavo were "What's a good vacation destination in the Caribbean for toddlers?" and "What are the rules of Blogging?," along with a quest to find  "Best sushi in Minneapolis."