It's Not Just What's on a Page or Who Links to It; It's How It Relates to Users' Personal Networks.
A young woman in Chapel Hill, N.C., wakes up sweating. Her air conditioner has died. She knows she wants a new one, but she wants one that will be energy-efficient, easy to install on her own, reliable and not too expensive. She hops online and types, "I need a new A/C today; I have $250 to spend -- help!" into Twitter, which in turn feeds automatically into her Facebook status. She immediately begins to receive replies in both channels from friends with advice on retail outlets, air-conditioner brands and how to stay cool with no A/C. She also sees an @ reply on Twitter from a national big-box retailer letting her know its Chapel Hill location has new air conditioners in stock, as well as a link to the section of its website that shows air conditioners for under $250.

This is the new face of the "search" experience online. The separation between search and social media is melting away, and a new paradigm is taking hold. Finding the right content is as much about whom it comes from as where you find it. By building a network of credible sources via social media, we're able narrow our "searches" to a select group of people whom we trust.

For brands, this means a host of new challenges and opportunities are emerging beyond the traditional search channel.

And how far it's come: When search began, marketers used paid search and SEO to make content findable on their own web pages.

by Peter Hershberg. Reading all in: http://is.gd/pF3G