Today Brightkite, the location-based social network, has updated their page layout to, once again, bring search back to the top of the page. This time, however, they’ve added two new types of search to their original places search; people and posts.
I’m very pleased to see this addition to Brightkite so early-on in their development roadmap. Search is a challenge for any content company and I think that this first version of their search tool to find posts and people is good enough to appease the masses and have fun playing.
Oh, and the fact that they show a sample search for "sushi" makes it double-plus good.
At least once per day I find myself browsing the first few pages of the Universal tab in "What’s happening" on Brightkite. I find it to be a great way to see what others are doing, what photos their posting, where people are traveling and living, and just a generally good way to waste a few minutes of time. Like Twitter‘s public timeline this Universal tab allows people to get a glimpse of what others on Brightkite are doing even if they aren’t friends with them.
Adding search to this itch that I scratch each day is going to make me want to use it even more. I search Twitter all-the-time for things I’m currently experiencing or wondering about. Now I’ll probably search Brightkite. Some searches I’ve done recently on Twitter, but am now poking around on Brightkite for are [cast iron](http://brightkite.com/objects/search?oquery=cast iron&commit=Submit), Viddler (of course), MNF (or Monday Night Football), and [making wine](http://brightkite.com/objects/search?oquery=making wine).
My list for things I’d like to see on Brightkite is long and varied but I’m happy I can now remove search from this list and look forward to the Brightkite team knocking a few other items off the list in the future.