Only a few hours after Microsoft announced deals with Twitter and Facebook to integrate real time data into Bing’s search results, Google’s Marissa Mayer announces at the Web 2.0 Summit that Google Social Search will be launching in the coming weeks.

There has been so much said about this in the last 24 hours, and it is hard to keep up with all the blogs, news and article mentions. Let me try and summarize quickly…

Yesterday Microsoft announced sealed agreements to access real-time content from social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to boost search engine results in Bing. According to Microsoft executives at a presentation at a San Francisco Internet conference, Bing is hoping to take on current dominant search leader Google in the sphere of Social Search and will have access to Twitter’s entire store of public data in real time as well as content from social networking site Facebook. At the same conference, it was also announced that a standalone Twitter search service will be offered at Bing, with some ranking technology other than sort by date involved, and that shortened URLs will be expanded. And finally, there would be some integration within the regular Bing service itself.

Only a few hours later, Google’s Marissa Mayer announced Google Social Search will be launching in the coming weeks. This feature will allow you to see results for queries from people in your social network and will work only via your own Google Profile. In your profile, if you add add links to social networks you’re a member of, such as FriendFeed or Twitter, Google will scan who you are connected to and give your results from those people which will then be integrated in to regular results. Google emphasised their goal of creating the most comprehensive, relevant and fast search and believe that their search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, looking forward to having a product showcasing how tweets can make search better in the coming months.

There has been such talk for some time and even though Bing (MSFT) beat Google to it by first announcing the integration of real-time data into search results, it is clear that this move from both indicate what the future of Search holds for us. Social Integration. Real-time data in Search results! This indicates the importance of consumer perception and the value of comments made by the average consumer and the trust they have regarding brands and products.

This is somewhat confirmed by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg saying that The Future is Social, Not Search. While Google is by far Facebook’s biggest rival in terms of Paid Advertising, it was clear that no love is lost between Google and Sheryl Sandberg, an ex-Googler. Sandberg said that Facebook is leading the net from the information age to the social age, where people will be finding their important answers not through Google but through their friends. As for search, Sandberg said Google would still have a place in the future, even if it’s not very big.

The face of search is indeed going to change and the race to be there first is definately on. The next days, weeks and months will be very interesting.

How will consumer behaviour affect search and the ranking relevance of brands and products in the SERP’s?

My personal prediction is that this affect won’t be seen immediately, but that it will slowly take affect as both Search Engines integrate real time data over the coming months.

For me, the future of Search will neither be Search, nor Social. The future of Search will be “Social Search” – Integrated Real-Time Search, (hopefully) relevant, updated results, as it happens.

How Bing and Google will control what is included in the search results will be interesting to see, but this can only be a good thing for companies doing Online Reputation Management. Hopefully businesses and corporates will be forced to operate in the social spaces more to not only control the conversations, but also add to it, or respond.

Resources:

• Facebook and Twitter Now More Important to Search Rankings?
• Microsoft’s Bing seals Facebook, Twitter deals
• RT @google: Tweets and updates and search, oh my!
• Bing To Do Deal With Twitter, Launch Its Own Twitter Search
• Google Social Search Is Coming & More On Google-Twitter
• Microsoft, Google in deals with Twitter, Facebook
• Google’s New Social Search Is A Big Chess Move Against Facebook
• The Future is Social, Not Search, Facebook COO Says

In a short update during the “Searcher Behaviour Research Update” session, Erica Schmidt said that offline has a great influence through word of mouth and that word of mouth is both offline and online.

Significant amounts of searches are directly influenced from offline – 67% of web searches is a direct result of offline word of mouth.

It is interesting to note that 39% of the 67% has made online conversions.

Another interesting piece of statistic is that 36% of search users believe that the top results are from top brands and that consumers are less likely to purchase from a brand that is not in the Search Engine Result Pages.

Search engine searches has become more important to 57% of online users over the last year while 35% of online search users use company name keywords.

Finally:
54% of online population search at least daily
83% at least weekly

The description for this session reads as follow: “The recent possibilities presented with a Microsoft/Yahoo world represent the culmination of the ongoing battle for mindshare in accessing the world’s information. We have front row seats to these events as they unfold. With an introduction from author and thought leader Nick Carr, search experts and analysts discuss the impact of these changes in an interactive format.”

After the introduction by Nic Carr, the speakers, Mike Grehan, Steven Kaufman, Bryan Eisenberg, Erica Schmidt and Paul Doleman, threw around their ideas about the Microsoft/Yahoo merger and after all the discussions only a few ideas popped up and no clear answers could be given on any of the questions.

One thing to mention was a comment made by Steven Kaufman who said that the merger is a much bigger deal than just search. It will be interesting to see how quickly companies will be able to mobilize and adapt into this new changing world.

Mike Grehan asked what it means to marketers and the consumer but it was unclear really to say what the answer to that was.

Another question raised was: “Has Yahoo given up on merger” – In short it sounded like all agreed that it was NO.

Someone else, I forget who, mentioned that Yahoo needs to focus on the delivering the best customer experience – better engagement for the consumer and higher customer experience.

Another comment was made suggesting that, should the merger take place, the Search Results might be integrated. The point is integration from a search perspective – so perhaps we’ll be moving into more of universal search.

Mike mentioned privacy issues and said that he is amazed at how easy it is to find private information out there. For example he mentioned searching for a business plan [ "business plan" filetype: xls ]

Another comment was that the strongest point of the deal is probably the “weak underbelly of google” which is their weak user database. Yahoo and MSN has huge user databases and that may put them way ahead of Google when the look at providing content to the searcher.

Finally, another question: “who will be the next search leader?” – Answer: we don’t know. no-one knows.