Is Social Networking Killing Search Engines?

Would you rather trust a friend or a search engine? It's a question I never really considered until reading this article on BlogWorld.com: Is Social Networking Killing Search Engines?

The article discusses whether or not search engines are in danger due to the comforting factor in asking your friends via social networking. Basically, the reliable vs the intimate - which one would you trust?

Let's say you're looking for a Thai restaurant in DC (the article uses a restaurant in New Mexico, but let's keep it local), who would you ask?

Let's say you Google or Bing it, it'll tell you the most local/most searched for restaurants in your area that you must filter through. On the other hand, your friends have experience and opinions that can tell you what the best one is....but are your friends always online? Let's say it's 3 am and you want the best Thai restaurant in DC...unless you want to wake up your friends or can guarantee FB or Twitter responses, a search engine is probably your best bet. Plus, although they might not be our friends, with websites such as Yelp and Foursquare, you have the ability to browse recommendations and critiques of places.

So which is better, the intimate or the reliable?? The article brings a good argument into perspective. What I want to know is - why can't you have both? With two clicks, you can search and ask your friends with a Facebook/Twitter status...and voila!