Social Media News Buffet

Yesterday was quite the eventful day with tons of breaking social media news.

First off, there was the Microsoft search deal with Twitter and Facebook to put status updates in Bing. Then there was Google bellying up with Twitter to also have status updates and Tweets listed in search results. Finally, Google pumped out another announcement, but this time about their new product, Social Search. Highlights of social search include (from @mashable):

- The bottom of search results will soon have social networking information from your friends, like their Flickr (Flickr) photos or their status updates. It’s a blended search integration, similar to seeing news or image results.

- These are pulled from social networks connected to your Google Profile. The more that are connected, the more social information that will appear in search results.

- They have also improved searching for images using social networks. Images become more relevant using social networking data.

- It will launch in Google Labs in the next few weeks.

What is interesting about each of these deals is the fact they all point to a sign that social content is just as important as content created via traditional online channels (news outlets, corporate websites, etc.)

This news is more important to companies and organizations than it is consumers really. It'll help brands find nuggets of conversations in a more efficient manner than having to drill down through the various social networking services separately. Additionally, the search functionality for social networking services lacks the "smarts" that Google or Bing tout; after all this is what they do best.

Yes, some leg work will still have to be done to pull those conversations out of the interwebs, digest them and create strategies around them. But with Bing and Google spreading their tentacles into the social content space, those conversations will be easier to find.