If I told you that Google and its intuitive search engine would change the Internet landscape years ago, would you believe me? Today, we take for granted the uphill battle that the now-dominant Google faced before Yahoo! and engines like AltaVista or AOL. Looking back, search helped to create a revolution where the consumer was in control. Once again, consumers are beginning to experience a revolution of sorts within social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Bebo, etc) and various platforms (Facebook Platform, MySpace Developer Platform, OpenSocial, etc).

As Charlene Li of Forrester Research pointed out during day one at Graphing Social Patterns, social networks, just like search, will soon act like “air”. The future of these technologies, whether existing on a purebred site like Facebook or integrated social networking tools within a search engine like Yahoo!, are certain to become ubiquitous. However, more interesting is the possibility that social network and application consolidation (exactly like what Erin wrote about earlier) is feasible for the general public ONLY with the help of major Internet players: Google, AOL, MSN and Yahoo! To put this into context, think of having customized personal, friend-backed recommendations when it came to search results or financial portfolio tracking. (The idea of the “social graph” or in other words, the visual connection of users within a virtual or physical environment, even furthers this prediction when taking into account that “walled garden” approach of welcoming users in but not out, deteriorates.) For Charlene’s presentation from yesterday morning, see here.

So why does this matter to the communications and advertising professional?

What search did to the Internet in 2003, social networks and later, social applicability across the Web, will transform our understanding of “old” technologies to that of a new, highly targeted and niche frontier. The movement to access your personal profile no matter where you browse, search or shop from one central point is currently under our nose. (Yesterday, Google announced that their contact data API is now live for developers to implement across sites, meaning we are even closer to one, universal identity.) For the public relations practitioner and interactive marketer, valuing social networks as an integrated part of a digital campaign among search engines, blogging and corporate websites is of critical importance to a sustained strategy.

I’ve seen Facebook and other worldwide social networks explode in user engagement and growth in less than a few years between various regions. The question is, are you ready to explore the opportunity for yourself and your clients?