Google recently introduced a significant change to their search engine that could have a big impact on people who use the social network Google+ for business purposes.
Bloggers, authors and others who use Google+ partly as a marketing tool will now see more of their content featured in Internet searches thanks to something new called Search, plus Your World that Google officially released on Tuesday, January 10.
According to Ian Paul of PC World, "Get ready for more Google+ data in your Google searches as the company aims to personalize your results by including more Google+ profiles, business pages, posts, and Google+ and Picasa Photos. ... [Search, plus Your World] is baked right into Google and aims to personalize your search results by including Google+ data when you are signed into your Google account.
"Search, plus Your World surfaces content that has been shared with you on Google+, as well as public information from the social networking site that is related to your search, and integrates this data into typical Web search results."
An entry posted on the official Google blog on January 10 explains how it works.
According to Google Fellow Amit Singhal, "We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. We began this transformation with Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step in this direction by introducing three new features:
- Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
- Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
- People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.
"Together, these features combine to create Search plus Your World. Search is simply better with your world in it, and we’re just getting started."
While these new features potentially have benefits for all Google+ users, Search, plus Your World could be especially good for freelance writers and others who are in business for themselves.
According to Lance Ulanoff of Mashable, "The deep integration of Google+ in search does not stop there, though. Google+ profiles will now be a part of the search query box. As long as you’re signed into Google+, Google will try to finish your search query with the most likely in-your-Circles match. Google, in other words, is assuming that you’re looking for someone you know and not just a random person with the same name.
"You’ll also see results for public profiles of those you don’t follow or have in any circles. Naturally, the new Google Search will allow you to add them right from the results page. Similarly, when you search for a topic, Google will helpfully return results with 'prominent people' who are experts in that topic. Yes, you can follow them direct from the results, as well."
Just for example, this could be huge for people who write online content for Examiner and other web sites. If someone in the Spokane area wanted to learn more about the Department of Homeland Security, Google might point him or her toward Spokane Conservative Examiner Joe Newby. The Google user would then have the option of adding Joe to his or her circles. He or she would also be offered a link to Joe's Google+ page with a brief description and a profile picture.
The potential is there for one quick search to result in somebody reading more of Joe's articles, or maybe even wanting to follow him on Google+. For marketing purposes, this could make Google+ a good alternative to Twitter.
Much like the content on the popular microblogging site, anything that is labeled "public" is going to be seen by many people who make related Google searches. That was possible already before Google released Search, plus Your World but it is going to happen even more in the future. The potential for "passive earning" from Examiner articles and other online content is tremendous.
The best part is that people won't have to change their marketing strategies. If their content is interesting, they can keep doing what they are doing already.
Here in the Spokane area, people who place a high value their privacy are probably going to stay away from Google+ or spend some time changing their settings to limit what others can see. But for someone trying to market a local business or direct more traffic toward a blog, this change that might seem too invasive to some users is really a good thing.
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