http://doodleporn.disqus.com/enFri, 23 Oct 2009 18:21:11 -0000http://doodleporn.tumblr.com/post/221004100#comment-20888068<p>I think you make some valid points here and your concerns certainly have basis in reality, but I think you have overlooked one very important fact: search engines like Google and Bing must learn to filter out the spam in order to continue to provide quality relevant results.</p><p>One of the unique things about search engines harvesting content from Twitter and Facebook status updates is that these networks already have built-in metrics for gauging source reliability that have come about organically. If someone on Twitter has a high follower to following ratio, then they usually are providing a value that goes beyond any superficial mutual-follow mentality. Being retweeted by others is often another sign that the content (and/or link) you provide is valued by the user community.</p><p>Can these traits be faked? Maybe, but a false account would have real trouble matching up with all of the metadata that I am sure is available through Twitter's firehose feed (date of signup? rate of follower growth? number of tweets per day? reply rate? who knows what else?). As easily as I can look at a new follower's profile and decide whether they are worth my attention (or a block), it sure seems that search giants like Google and Bing will be able to filter the junk out from the good solid content.</p><p>Because these social networks are relational (and those relationships can be measured and quantified much better than relationships between web sites) I believe the search engines will be able to distill a lot of true value from the stream. I'm already encouraged by what I see in Bing's Twitter search results even though I don't know exactly which factors they are using to gauge value, I am impressed by their ability to pull just a few high-ranking tweets for each trending topic. I am sure they will do the same with all search terms.</p><p>I'll be interested to see if and how it has an effect on network behavior, but for now I'll keep doing what I do and let Google and Bing worry about doing the thing they must always do to remain a search leader: weed out spam and point to content of actual value.</p>KPfefferleFri, 23 Oct 2009 18:21:11 -0000