Mashable posted this morning on a yet-to-be-released service from a couple of ex-Googlers, code-named Mechanical Zoo, that lets you search the social datastream. This is a great idea, and like so many things, reminds me of a cartoon, in this case an old Schoolhouse Rock jingle about nouns that was going through my head yesterday. The best kind of local search (for places) takes advantage of things (computers and software) and people (human interaction a la Mahalo).
Using the social datastream to get answers to find a restaurant recommendation, for example, is sort of like shouting out in a crowd, at the top of your lungs “hey, anyone know of a good restaurant?” OK, it’s better than that, because with Twitter and similar tools, you know your voice has a chance to get heard, and you can listen to the responses clearly above the din.
Adding search to the social datastream is like having the ability to listen to the echoes of everyone’s responses, and cut straight through to exactly what you want to hear. Using search in this context lets you instantly query a large number of people, and manage their responses efficiently. If you’re looking for something local, specifically, it’s a way for people to help you find places. It uses things (computers), of course, but not completely.
What’s missing in this scenario is a structured database of past questions and responses, categorized by query type. If I ask the social datastream for a restaurant recommendation, I’m very happy to get direct responses to my query. But if I search the echoes for past mentions of restaurants, I don’t want my search results to contain a feed item that says “ran into the awful ex at a restaurant last night.” What I want is a thing (database) that understands at some level what a restaurant is.
Here at Loladex we start from the perspective of the structured database, so a search for a restaurant only returns actual restaurants. We take advantage of social concepts to return results to users based on recommendations from their friends. And we allow users to query their friends directly. We take full advantage of input from people and the power of things to help users find places. We already integrate with the social datastream by publishing users’ recommendations to Facebook feeds, and there’s more to come.
People, Places and Things. Always something to be learned from a cartoon. Which reminds me. Gotta mark the calendar for the opening of Speed Racer. Between that and Schoolhouse Rock, does that date me, or what?
