• TechCrunch, Monday, December 29, 2008 11 AM

TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld imagines what true social search would look like if Google and Facebook joined forces.

He says that being able to search friends' thoughts, interests and activities would provide a better experience, allowing searches for restaurants, books or movies to turn up written recommendations from people you actually know, for example. Or, if planning a trip to Europe, you could easily find out which of your friends have been to the countries you're researching and could ask for advice on where to go and what to do.

Of course, this all just a dream, Schonfeld reminds us, as it would take the union of Google and Facebook to actually make those kinds of searches possible. As it stands, the search experience on Facebook is poor, while Google's social tools lack Facebook's massive user base. "Yet social search done right could become very valuable for Facebook," Schonfeld argues, adding, "It would be even more valuable for Google." He takes us through a demonstration of how such a union might work.

Read the whole story at TechCrunch »