The power of Social Media is not in the answers it gives but in the questions it makes you ask

I grew up without the Internet and I grew up in a village of 400 people which means one of my few sources of new information was the large encyclopaedia my parents bought.

Looking back one of the great benefits with these books was I would be looking for something specific but often I would find an unrelated item I would find equally interesting next to the entry I was initially looking for.

The only relationship between two entries was they started with the same letter. At the time I am not even sure I realised this "user journey" through unrelated entries, but I learned a lot from it.

Search engines changed all that. They only gave us results that related to what we were looking for and while it made search for information much more effective, it also put a barrier towards unrelated entries. Everything became relevant, everything became efficient.

And as I've become increasingly better at using search engines I have also become increasingly aware of the missing random, unrelated information.

This is where Social media has brought random information back into our lives through friends' feeds and updates. My Facebook stream this morning looks like this:

- Friend 1: Says "All aboard!"
- Friend 2: Posted a video
- Friend 3: Needs help to kill off some mafioso
- Friend 4: Uploaded some photos
- Friend 5: Is doing Jiu Jitsu

Now I want to watch Friend 2's video, Friend 3's Mafia Wars entry made me consider visiting my FarmVille and Friend 5's update makes me want to sign up to a martial arts class.

All of the above triggered a behaviour unrelated to what I was looking for, or should I say they all helped me decide what I am looking for.

Search engines and social media (still) serve two different purposes but it won't continue like this as social networks will increasingly help us search and search engines will become more social.