Semanti Firefox plug-in ties up with Facebook

Semanti, formerly known as Semantifind, is a Firefox 3 plug-in that works with a user's chosen search engine to assign context to queries, preview results in line, save good search results, and provide suggestions derived from community use.

This week, Semanti v. 2.0 was released, with features that now include "Social Search," or search results based upon your Facebook friends' search behavior. For example, when Semanti provides an answer to your query that you find particularly effective, you can save that result so that when your Facebook friends search for the same terms, the results that you approved of appear as the top answers to their query. It's something like "starring" the highest quality answer so your friends don't waste time poking around less pertinent results.

Fortunately, the plug-in does not show any information on your Facebook feed like many other apps built on Facebook Connect, and only search results you actively mark will show up in Semanti, so there is no risk of your friends finding out about your secret obsession with vintage cookie jars. It does show in the search window which of your friends starred certain results.

This is designed to provide a peer review aspect to nearly any search. Rather than try to build a social network around their search product, as others have tried, Semanti opted to instead go with the tried and tested Facebook and will soon incorporate buddy lists from other services.

Besides, as Semanti Corportation's CEO Bruce Johnson said, "The world needs another social network like it needs a hole in the head."

The Semanti v. 2.0 Firefox 3 plug-in works with Google, Yahoo, and Bing and can be downloaded here.