To build upon their “Bing Is For Doing” philosophy, America’s second largest search engine has decided that it will follow in Google’s footsteps and provide social integration.  More information about the merger of social and search platforms across the web can be found in a previous 90blog post.  Bing will attempt to do what Google has decided against and use Facebook (among other social networking sites) as its primary tool to get answers for its users.  As Bing says, “Recent attempts at social search haven’t unlocked the full potential of tapping our social networks.”  Through an integrated format called the Sidebar, users will be able to get the opinion of friends, family, and colleagues online, much as you would in person.

Many brands have rushed to adapt to one of the latest trends in social media – brand pages on Pinterest. Many brands are seeing results in the form of referral traffic to their site and high-engagement with their community. Here are some tips for optimizing your brand page on Pinterest.

Even though the Washington Capitals eliminated them in this year’s NHL Playoffs, the Boston Bruins would likely win the Stanley Cup of Social Media if such a thing existed.  

What’s so great about Pinterest, anyway? Most users already know it’s an all-too-effective means of distraction (not that we ever get distracted here at 90octane!). However, as a result, the site boasts audience engagement statistics that most assuredly qualify it as a social media platform to watch.

While it’s nearly impossible to predict the future of the ever changing web, many experts are expecting that combining social and search will be the next big trend.  Google has already established itself as the pioneer in this field by combining Google Search and Google+; however, Google isn’t the only web giant interested in bringing the two tactics together.  It is rumored that Facebook is developing a search engine that combines a user’s location and friends’ interests to provide search query results.