What is Social Search and Why Is It Important?

I define social search as the following:

"Search results influenced by the end user."

Take Dmoz.org for example

Dmoz was and still is a great resource for finding sites by drilling down and using Human Editors to sift through submissions and only allowing the best sites to be listed.

Great concept, although with most things the system is open to abuse, but it is the reason that Google and other Search Engines use Dmoz results as a basis to their own results.

Now, many, many online search engines are appearing with an element of social search, take http://www.flickr.com/ for example..

It is niched in that it deals with online photo storage, but the social element is in how tagging can help other users find relevant pictures, and it is this social element that I think has helped Flickr become a great site.

Hey, I've only just started researching the Social aspect of Search, and I hope to turn this site into a useful resource so if you've any links, resources or information just post a comment and let me know.

Cheers,

John