Say what?!  Let me break it down a little deeper for you. 

If you are a regular person looking for info by doing a Google search, Google has always wanted to give you exactly what you are looking for.  That does not always happen – but now Google wants to help increase “word of mouth”  from your social circle in the hopes that you will trust what they have said more than what Google says in the results.

It turns out, that it may be useful to you if info on a restaurant you are interested in was reviewed by your cousin.  People trust their people’s opinions more than what some random search engine, right?   So, if you are typing the name of the restaurant and hit enter, and if you happen to be logged into Google, and you happen to have added your cousin into your gmail contact list or chat list - you will see social search results at the bottom of your page, where one click shows what your cousin wrote.  

Of course, Google still maintains control of the page of results.  They will still send you paid ads and hope you click on those, and still shows the top 10 search results which are determined through their algorhythm.  And then, if Google determines that your cousin’s info is relevant, they may or may not show it at the bottom of the page.  Depends on their, cough, algorhythm, cough.

And, in the end, is Google doing this to keep people on their page instead of using Bing or Yahoo for relevant search results? Probably.  Also, there is that Big Brother feeling in my gut.  To see the social circle results, one has to have a Google email account, a Google Profile, and Google Reader is thrown in also.  And, you have to be logged in.  So, not only do they know who you are, they know what you are doing at all times.  The announcement came with many statements of how using social search is optional, and only at your permission, and could be changed by you at any time.

Perhaps this is why all of this is still in the Google Labs as an experiment for now.

“When money is tight, consumers are constantly looking for deals. And, today, that means they are going online to search for better prices, selection and services. If they find them—forget brand loyalty—they will switch to new products or vendors in a clickbeat.

Marketers have four basic search options: paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion—all three are types of advertising—and search engine optimization (SEO).

While paid search gets most of the attention and money, marketers are increasingly turning to SEO to acquire new customers.

All four options will experience increased spending through 2013. By then total US search marketing outlays will reach nearly $23.4 billion, and marketers will be spending more on SEO than on contextual advertising. ”