Microsoft has unveiled its new vision for search, with social connections playing an increasingly important role in determining the content on SERPs.
Bing’s new social ‘sidebar,’ which appears off to the right of the screen, is designed to allow ‘people share, discover, and interact with friends like they do in real life’.
A rather wordy blog from Microsoft explains, “Bing suggests friends on Facebook who might know about the topic – based on what they ‘like’, their Facebook profile information, or photos they have shared so you can easily ask them about relevant experiences and opinions.”
It is quite similar to the Google Plus integration into Google search results; but with one major difference. Microsoft is not trying to push its own social network on to the masses.
Although the blog focuses on Facebook quite heavily, Microsoft has said it will also include returns based on Twitter, Foursquare, Quora, Linkedin and Google Plus. It could be the start of a power shift in search.
