For those who receive our newsletter, we all made predictions for the coming year and one of mine was “Google+ will have a big year particularly when it integrates search results.” Well it’s happened and a whole lot quicker than I imagined and being labelled as Google’s “Search Plus Your World”. For me, it was a no-brainer — a way to get numbers and action on their own social system (Google+) and a way to improve search personalization. The way it works is to combine private and public content into a single set of search result listings. Some question the value of personalization in Search and most are critical of the difficulty switching it off. But Google is sticking to its guns and now they’ve made it a lot easier to turn off.
The latest update was announced through my search results.
After you click ‘learn more’, you’re taken to a page that explains this new service. In typical Google fashion, it includes a video that claims “search gets better by including photos, posts, and more from you and your friends.” Maybe. What is most significant here is that for general searches you do on Google, if you are signed in with a Google account, you’ll see items on the search result pages from those in your circles. If you’re not logged in, from what I can see, it looks like it shows Google+ updates and profiles (both seem to have been given a boost) that it deems relevant.
If you want to be part of this latest Search iteration, you’ll need a Google+ profile. For business, create a page (pimp your profile). Then set up your circles, start following, engaging, and sharing. I think it’s worth getting comfortable with Google+ because I see it becoming a more important Internet marketing tool and will continue to evolve.
I’ll be watching to see how this new feature impacts us all. Right now it’s fairly limited but a sign of things to come. A killer feature would include pulling in other profiles like it does with Quora and of course if they can resolve their relationships with Twitter and Facebook, the personalized landscape might just get interesting. Keep you posted!