“It’s not ten years, not five years away, it’s a couple years away–tops–where social is literally so imbued into the experience that it’s just another ranking factor like anything else.”

- Stefan Weitz, director at Bing, “Bing’s Social Search Won’t Always Rely On Facebook ‘Likes’” from Fast Company.

This week Bing announced that it would begin to allow Facebook factors to integrate and influence its search results even more heavily than before. The move is an effort to better filter search results based on two main approval factors: friends (Facebook Likes) and the majority (“Collective IQ”). Bing’s is making social more of a integral part of its search results, rather than just an additional layer.

It’s been said that the web doesn’t have a problem of information overload, but a problem of filter failure. Both Bing and Google have recently subscribed to the philosophy of improving that filter with social data. The news is further evidence of the growing trend in helping filter the internet’s information based on the approval of experts, majorities and friends.

Digital marketing experts are often divided about directing resources towards social instead of search. If the hundreds of millions of social media users weren’t reason enough for a brand to carefully consider social, the effects those users are beginning to have on search should be. Social is quickly becoming synonymous with search. Which leads us to believe that brands that want to succeed digitally, a social strategy is no longer a question or an option, it is now essential.