atom42 - 9:46 am on Oct 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

I agree with all of this.

For me - the whole idea of search is that I'm looking for something new. I don't want to be served a listing in the top three results just because I found it on the 5th page the week before.

As for social influencing search - this definitely gives my social network much more credit than I'm willing too. Generally, my friends are a fairly flaky group of reprobates who's opinions I probably don't seek out that much. If I did want their opinion, I would ask them. I don't though, so I go to a search engine - when for once in my life, I want to be in independent control.