A post on Read/WriteWebthis morning mentions that semantic search engine Hakia has ventured into the realm of social networking with its "Meet Others" feature. Once a user searches for something on Hakia, she can click on "Meet others who asked the same query" and be linked to a sort of message board for that topic. Those who post enter their emails, so you can contact them. If the person is online, you can Skype or MSN chat with him.
Read/WriteWeb's Richard McManus is kind, offering both the optimist and pessimist views on Meet Others. On the one hand, the feature doesn't seem to be a good fit with the core search business. On the other hand...ah, forget the other hand. Use the other hand to slap yourself in the forehead and say, "My God! Does every website need a social feature?" If this was a good idea, Google Answers would still exist.
As McManus points out in my favorite of his two arguments, people come to a search engine to find answers, not other people. If Hakia is trying to provide a better search than Google, that's a big enough task in itself. Sending developers down the road of social network creation just seems like a bad idea.
