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Lots of people have been talking about social sites cannibalizing search. I've addressed this in a prior post since it comes up a lot. eMarketer published a report today that has two interesting findings. First, Google, Bing and Yahoo have little to worry about. They still represent nearly all (like 97.8%) of the search traffic out there. No big surprise, but, here's the interesting part, those who "search" via social networks are often more loyal customers to the sites that are referred by them.

This does not surprise me. Recommendations from friends, and even friends of friends, carry a ton more weight than random searches done on the Web. Sure, lots of sites have rankings, but unless there are tons of ratings for a particular product, there's still a lack of confidence in whether what you are about to buy will meet the expectations set by the advertising hype or web site product description and photo. Compare that to a search done via a social network, within a trusted network of friends, and voila, you have instantly lowered the barriers to purchase and simultaneously increased the degrees of confidence in that product or service. Research consistently shows that trust among friends for product decisions trumps company advertising and even celebrity advertising by big margins. eMarketer's report shows that while still infinitesimal searchers on social networks tend to repeat visit sites that come out of those referrals more frequently than those done on the Web.

So, the big question is whether people will, over time, be more likely to use the social networks as a starting point for doing random searches for products or services than the Web. The answer is, probably not anytime soon. But, there is still every reason to think that these networks will be used to informally ask friends for referrals in much the same way that people have been doing offline forever. The fact is that it's happening already. We've all seen the post asking for the best restaurant in Denver or whether the new box office smash is really worth seeing. I polled my own network in the Fall when I needed advice on birthday gifts for my niece and nephew. But more often than not, searching the web (or Amazon.com, frankly) is more efficient since I don't have to wait for people to check in and reply, nor risk having no one post anything at all. Plus, there are more search results to choose from.

The more interesting question, though, is how social networks will monetize what will likely be a growing use of these trusted networks. The (ad) model which has rung the cash register for Google and Yahoo hasn't really for Facebook. MySpace and LinkedIn have done a better job of monetizing their traffic via advertising (MySpace) and charging for access to the network (LinkedIn). Cracking this code will have as much to do with understanding what drives people to these networks in the first instance, and then how or if a search-based feature is something that can complement both the member experience as well as the bottom line.

Karen Webster is the President of Market Platform Dynamics (MPD), a management consulting firm that helps companies profit from industry disruption. She serves as an advisor and member of the board for a number of companies operating in the payment, technology and digital media industries. More info here.