Social Discovery

What Does Social Discovery Mean?

Social discovery is becoming a buzzword in describing new technologies, including but not limited to social networks and mobile apps. Social discovery can be defined in two way. The first definition is applied to resources where one user finds out information about another. In a more general sense, social discovery can also mean that a user gets information about anything based on reviews, advice or other input from another user.

Techopedia Explains Social Discovery

One use of social discovery is in established social networks like Facebook. Whenever users access data about another person, whether it’s the name or user name of the individual, or aspects of the individual’s profile, that constitutes social discovery. In other kinds of social discovery, Facebook users can promote causes, recommend goods and services, or share other opinions through the social platform. Other technologies can also facilitate social discovery in many different ways. For example, a site that lets users review restaurants could be called a "social discovery resource" because other users can choose restaurants based on previous input, which can be considered a "social" process.

Along with the benefits that social discovery tools offer to the public, there are also some significant concerns with this kind of technology. Some consider many social discovery programs to be intrusive, and as consumers work to guard personal information, privacy issues could be a serious obstacle to more proliferation of social discovery resources.