Hunch

"Search Takes a Social Turn" N Y Times, September 13, 2010

Hunch, a start-up based in New York, wants to go beyond cataloging the places and products for which your friends have already expressed affection. With some complex software, it tries to use that information to predict what other things you might like, even if nobody you know has ever offered an opinion on those things before. The service pulls in data about articles, topics and people that you and your friends have “liked” on Facebook or follow on Twitter. “Based on your placement in the social graph and who your friends are, we can make inferences about what you like,” said Chris Dixon, who founded the company with Caterina Fake, one of the creators of Flickr.

For example, Hunch’s database shows that people who are big fans of Twitter are also likely to be interested in visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York, while the non-Twitterati tend to favor the theater. Mr. Dixon said the company was testing a local search tool that can make restaurant, shopping and hotel recommendations. “We can take your taste profile and data from the Web and begin to match you to places that you will like,” he said. The company says it plans to unveil partnerships with major e-commerce, news and travel sites, along with mobile location-based services.

A shopping or travel site that Hunch is working with could help a visitor decide which offerings would best suit their tastes. Based on the data Hunch has collected about correlations between user preferences, the site might suggest that someone in search of a hotel in Las Vegas should stay at the Venetian if her online circle of friends listens to hip-hop artists like Rihanna and Usher. The friend trend, where likes matter more than links, could eventually present a significant challenge to Google, which has struggled to create appealing social services.

In February the company introduced Buzz, which lets Gmail users share updates and photos, and it is including those updates in its customized results when users perform Web searches. “People are likely to find what your friends are saying about the iPhone 4 or a Chinese restaurant more helpful in a Web search,” said Matt Cutts, a software engineer who oversees search quality at Google. Mr. Cutts declined to talk about what Google might do next in the social search area, but he did say he expected “these sorts of trends to continue.”