I had a bit of a revelation a few days back that I would like to share with you…. About a week ago, I had heard through the grapevine that the NHL’s Central Scouting Report had just been released that day featuring the young hockey prospects forecasted to be selected in the upcoming 2007 NHL draft. This draft has special significance for our family this year as my wife’s two younger cousins (Riley and Brendan Nash - Remember those names!) have the potential of being picked.

So, in eager anticipation of finding their names in this Scouting Report, I raced to my laptop and googled the search ”NHL Central Scouting Report”. To my dismay, there were a lot of scouting reports listed, but ones from previous years and no search listing pertaining to this recent draft - Ugh! I jumped over to Yahoo and had the same results…

So, being an avid blog reader, I thought I would give Technorati a try to see if I could find anything. I punched in the search topic and sure enough there were a number of bloggers that had already weighed in on this report (that had only been released earlier that day)sharing their thoughts and feedback and providing the links to info on the scouting report. I am happy to report that both Riley and Brendan’s names were listed in the report!! 

Now, let me get to my little revelation here… I know that many experts in the Internet Marketing industry have been preaching and forecasting the power of blogging, consumer generated media and social search for quite some time. There is one thing to hear about where the industry is going and another to actually experience it on a practical level. The reality is that Technorati had provided more current and candid news commentary then Google’s listings on this specific topic! Real People in the blogosphere were already sharing their insights on this freshly released report. I sat there in front of my computer for my time and reflected on:

•  The sweeping changes taking place in how people search for news and information.   
•  The power of social search and user-generated content and it’s profound implications on how I will market and promote my web business moving forward.
• The shift taking place from a Global marketplace to a interactive and ”real” global community
• The importance of dialoguing and interacting with my customers and prospective customers in an authentic way.

Now, I should qualify by saying that I have NO plans to stop using Google anytime in the future. The reality is that Google typically provides the most relevant and targeted content and Technorati certainly does not come remotely close to matching Google in it’s search capabilities and functionality. But, I do see social and user generated search tools as a fresh, authentic, customized compliment to the spider generated search results of Google.

Bottomline… this little revelation further reinforced for me that Blog Search Engines (www.technorati.com and www.feedster.com) Social Bookmarking sites (www.Del.icio.us and www.wink.com) and other Social Search tools like Swickis (www.eurekster.com) are here to stay and NEED to be factored into any progressive web company’s online marketing efforts moving forward…. 

FYI, there is a great article in the latest edition of the Affiliate Classroom’s November publication with some relevant ideas and insights on the potential of social search for your web business. Check it out here…

http://blog.affiliateclassroom.com/2006/11/18/november-ac-magazine-released/

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