I recall a few months back, I was very excited about Semanti - a search plugin for Firefox. In fact, I was so enraptured by what it offered that I ran down the street with my underpants over my head, shouting out its virtues to all and sundry. I like to think the reception to this was mostly positive.

So, chances are you’re wondering what it was about Semanti that whipped me into such a frenzy? Well, you see, at the time of its release, Semanti offered innovations that neither Google nor Microsoft could match. By partnering with your Facebook profile through Facebook Connect, it was able to display recommendations from your friends alongside your run-of-the-mill search results, which I’m sure you’ll agree is very cool indeed.

This represented the most promising development in search in a long time, and I honestly thought it would make big waves in the online community. How wrong I was; a mere four months down the line and Semanti has caused little more than a ripple.
What makes Semanti’s descent into obscurity all the more depressing is the glowing praise that Google has received for Social Search. Released earlier this week, it offers little that Semanti didn’t already, and in some ways it’s actually inferior to the little-known browser plugin.

As the name suggests, one of Semanti’s primary features is its use of semantic search. It empowers Google, Bing or Yahoo! by serving up a list of semantic options when you enter a search term. For example, as I illustrated in a post I wrote shortly after it surfaced on the Web, a search for ‘battleaxe’ offered up these options:

This allows users to narrow down their search and hone in on exactly what they’re looking for. On release, Semanti already boasted a staggering number of phrases, and keeping in line with the community spirit it hoped to foster, users were encouraged to help grow the database by submitting their own. Google has offered something similar since March, but Semanti’s social factor, and the highly targeted nature of its search options sets it apart.

I’m not entirely sure where Semanti stands right now, but, as you can see, it’s certainly an impressive offering. It got the jump on Google in a way that Microsoft hasn’t managed in goodness knows how long, and it’s a terrible pity they weren’t able to leverage this momentum in the way I had hoped.

At the time, I said if Microsoft were to release something similarly fresh and innovative, they might finally be able to mount a decent challenge on Google’s market share. This was obviously wishful thinking, because, with the arrival of Social Search, Google just got one over Microsoft,  yet again.

Fortunately for them, in its nascent state social media-powered search offers plenty of room for maneuver – all they need to do is make the most it.

For instance, whilst Google has stated Social Search will pull results from any network that can be connected to your Google profile, it’s not clear to what extent all these different sites will be supported. Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace may be top of mind to you and I, but there are a few hundred million who make use of other social networks instead. Badoo, Bebo and Friendster are some of the more prominent among these sites and at last count, they boasted a combined 167 million accounts.

If and when Microsoft finally do get their act together and launch a social search service of their own, they could differentiate their offering from Google’s by providing greater support for these and other niche social networks.

Doing so would create a feeling of goodwill among users of these sites and provide solid incentive for those who use other search engines to change their allegiance to Bing.

Another way they could set themselves apart from Google is the way in which they integrate social results in their SERPs and the type of recommendations they offer. At such an early stage in Social Search’s life, improvements to the service are going to come thick and fast. If Microsoft was to preempt Google, and offer something that they perhaps haven’t thought of, it would have a far greater impact than any change to a search algorithm could ever have – simply because it would be far more tangible to the average user of the web.

Which brings me back to Semantic search – Semanti’s level of functionality is exactly the sort of thing that Microsoft should be looking at, but only once they’ve sorted out a Social Search offering of their own. As it stands, they’re once again on the back foot, and one has to wonder if they will ever possess the ingenuity and initiative to flip the tables on Google.

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