Google has long been the king of search, dominating rivals including Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., but it increasingly sees social networks such as Facebook as challengers to its search engine, according to a Google official.
As people search out advice online for everyday, personal decisions, the standard list of links served up by Google is not seen as intimate or trustworthy, Google Group Product Manager Ken Tokusei said Monday at the firm's Japanese headquarters in Tokyo. For decisions such as choosing a restaurant or a day care provider, social networking sites or known review sites have an advantage, he said.
Such sites offer information from friends or acquaintances, and Tokusei said users tend to trust that information more. This puts Google's results at a disadvantage.