It's interesting how we individuals on HN seem to use search in a totally different way then other, non-technical, groups and we think we're the norm. In the p

It's interesting how we individuals on HN seem to use search in a totally different way then other, non-technical, groups and we think we're the norm. In the past I had the same type of comments (e.g. Google returns better results, I don't care about social when searching, etc) but then I've taken a closer look at how my wife and my kids use search. Totally different then me. For me, search is my closest friend on the internet, it is my lifeline to solving all my (technical) problems. I use Google to be productive on a daily basis. It's not necessarily about research for me, it's about problem solving. For the rest of my family, they use search in a different way. They search for their favorite tv shows, for research (e.g. for trips, homework, the next big toy for xmas), for recipes, shopping, etc. They don't search to be more productive, they search for their hobbies and interests. As such, many of what they search for are social by nature. My wife likes to talk with her friends about the latest pair of shoes she's thinking of buying and my kids love to spend hours on facebook discussing the latest episode of CSI, etc. I'm with most of you, I don't get why we need this social "thing" on "our' search engines. It clutters everything and I don't want others to know what I'm searching for. But for my family, they talk about the stuff they search for and having these features on Bing might make them switch.. maybe...