Services on Korean search engines constantly move forward as user trends change. As a consequence Korean SEO is also constantly evolving. One of the most noticeable trends in the internet market in Korea is the increasing use of social networking services and the number of their users. In order to adapt quickly to these new trends, Naver and Daum, the most influential search engines in Korea, have both launched new services which show search results based on users social networking connections. For both of these services, searches are based on the account holder’s social connections within Naver and Daum. These new services are useful in that the results are personalized and customized since they only sort information from users’ own online connections. Naturally, as users continue to make more connections, more results will be displayed in the tailored search results of these new services. Now, let me introduce you to these new services in detail.Naver- ‘Social Network’Naver’s new search platform is called ‘Social Network’ and it was launched in October 2010. ‘Social Network’ results can only be found if you are logged into your Naver account as it uses your social network connections on your personal account to search for results. Network connections include your blog ‘neighbors’, members of cafés that you’re registered to and Me2Day friends. ‘Social Network’ search is more convenient and provides a differentiated service compared to the regular combined search. For example, the results shown in the ‘Social Network’ category may seem more useful and reliable to the user since the provider of the information is someone you know or share interests with. In order to view the results on the ‘Social Network’ more easily, you can change the settings so that you can combine or separate the results from blogs, cafés, and/or microblogs.
Daum- ‘My Social’
Daum’s new search platform is called ‘My Social’ and it was launched in December 2010. Similar to that of Naver, it basically is another search category that only shows results based on your social networking connections. These connections may be cafes you’re registered to, your blog and other blogs you’re neighbors with, your ‘view’ and other ‘view’ you’ve subscribed to and posts you’ve written on ‘Agora’. The results can be viewed on the combined search results page or also under the ‘My Social’ tab. Of course, you must be logged into your account if you wish to see any results listed under ‘My Social’.
Naver’s ‘Social Network’ VS. Daum’s ‘My Social’/Comparison between the two services
One of the good things about any result within ‘Social Network’ or ‘My Social’ is that the information may be very trustworthy since the source of the information is from someone you know, either on-line or off-line. So, with the launch of these services, users can find useful information more easily and quickly. To make better use of these new features on Naver and Daum, users will no doubt keep building connections so that they can get a more comprehensive set of results. From an SEO Korea perspective, companies wishing to broaden their exposure in the Korean search market should be looking to increase the volume of their content on social networking services like cafés, blogs and Me2Day to cover as many search categories as possible for the products or services they wish to promote. Then when users of these new social search platforms on Naver and Daum conduct searches, there will be more opportunities for such products or services to be found.
