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There is an excellent verbal poll running at Sphinn now asking SEOs if they feel that social ranking signals are making for a better set of search results. It is a good question - do you feel the search results are now better since Google and Bing began integrating social factors such as Facebook Likes, Google +1, Tweets and other social sharing features into the algorithm?
Take our poll:
Here are two comments from the Sphinn thread:
Jill Whalen said:
I don't see how we'd be able to know what difference social signals is making.That said, I do like when I'm logged in, to see the things people in my social networks are saying or recommending based on my searches (as long as I'm not looking for clean results for business purposes).
Matt McGee added:
For the most part, I feel the same way. I think there's some value in seeing a note that a certain friend/peer has shared/liked some URL in the search results -- or some local business in Google Places (which also mixes social elements into the UX). But I'm not a fan of the Blekko implementation where Facebook status updates and/or comment threads are shown next to search results. Too much clutter and not enough value in that, in my opinion.
We did have some SEOs complain that the results are doomed due to social ranking signals.
Please do take our poll and be as biased as you like. And also join the conversation at the thread.
Forum discussion at Sphinn.
