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would you appreciate knowing that she had looked at the same page and approved it? I know I would

Why? For a topic like that, I'd trust Google's general algorithm better than any friend or relative.

And even if recommendations can improve the results, why would the recommendations of my friends be any better than those of strangers? There are a few things like music where I might care what a few particular friends think, but I wouldn't be using Google to discover things like that anyway. The only time I want to see links from my friends is when I'm taking a break and not looking for anything in particular.

If Google actually wants to become a discovery/recommendation engine, it's going to be orthogonal to search. They will have to train people to use Google in a new way -- the way they currently use Facebook. This idea that goal-seeking and passive entertainment can be merged into a single activity seems really unnatural to me.

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Why? For a topic like that, I'd trust Google's general algorithm better than any friend or relative.

Google has an algorithm that effectively ranks the quality of recipes?! Neat!

If more people link to the better recipes, then yes. If not, recommendations might help but again, why is my aunt's choice more accurate than a stranger's?

Carrying on with the recipe example, there are dozens of ways to cook most recipes, which do you choose? How the variations differ may not be immediately obvious, however if you have extra information, such as your aunt's recommendation then the choice may become easier (your aunt shares your taste in cakes for example).

Social recommendation is useful when there are lots of right answers.

I'm supposed to like the same food as my friends and relatives? That's absurd. My father loves olives, I hate them. My brother hates spicy food, I love it. My mother hates cheese and milk, I like them just fine. My extended family is all meat and potatos, I'll eat food from anywhere in the world.

The things that connect me to these people just has nothing whatsoever to do with the things that I search for. I'm having a hard time thinking of any topic on which my friends and relatives can make better recommendations than the entire internet just by virtue of knowing me. The only time I would want to constrain a search to my social network is when I'm researching my social network itself.

I'm not surprised that people like the idea of social search. It sounds pleasant enough. But I have yet to see any useful example of it, or even hear a hypothetical one.

You're getting a little personal with the recipe example, I am sure there are people out there who like to cook and have family members who like to cook the same things. Crazy I know.

I suppose you could have no shared interests and opinions with anyone you know. Then I am afraid social recommendation, whether it is verbal or as part of a Google search, isn't for you.

I shall say it again for you, there are many questions where there are no wrong answers for which adding a social context will be a benefit, especially if you are someone who is in contact with people who have opinions you care about.

I frankly agree.. except that I think this might be a bit of geek-goggles. I think most of the people I know would love social proof from their immediate circle...

But yeah. Not me, man. The internets are my friends.

To a large extent tastes are regional and based on cultural background. Particularly in the case of acquired tastes such as for spicy or astringent food, there's a clear in-group/out-group bimodal distribution of preference.

Obviously individual variations exist, but the opinions of your friends and family are far from being irrelevant data.

Why do you think google offers free food to its employees?

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