Discovery is the New Search
Here is an interesting post by Alex Iskold. It’s somewhat technical but here are the key sentences…
… there are two fundamental activities online - Search and Browse. When a consumer knows exactly what she is looking for, she searches for it. But when she is not looking for anything specific, she browses. It is the browsing that holds the golden opportunity for a recommendation system, because the user is not focused on finding a specific thing - she is open to suggestions…
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/recommendation_engines.php
I agree with this. When you are open to discovering things you are open to ideas and suggestions. Danny Sullivan goes on to say…
To me, search engines are places where people search, they express an active desire, usually through a keyword search. People don’t go to Digg because they’re looking for something. Instead, they want to discover things, to see what’s new, be entertained. That’s not search.
Well, it might not be search, but it’s a kissing cousin, closely related.
Kissing cousins. Enough said. Other people are the key ingredient in browse and discovery and so this activity is more social than search. Especially as far as peer-to-peer recommendations are concerned. Hopefully, it stops a little short of kissing your cousin but then again, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it! I haven’t by the way…


