In the continuing bid for web supremacy between giants, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, Google just pulled out an Ace with the implementation of Google Plus updates within its search results. I first noticed they appeared to the right of the normal ads sections when I googled the terms "seo" and "media", but not with other random terms...hmmm. I wondered could this be especially for me? Personal search? What else do they know? Anyway, I think its official. Google has gone social.

This move was by a long shot not unexpected; however, it is monumental, especially for Google. This move fundamentally changes the nature of social networking. For now, Google has used its own clot as the dominant search engine to push the Google Plus platform into relevancy. We have yet to see the ramifications of such a move. If successful, the number of posts via Google Plus should rise exponentially, thereby bringing the model in close competition with the likes of Twitter and Facebook. I know, that's a long way off, if possible, but Google has had its eyes on the social networking pie for a long time now. The process gained momentum last year when Google ended the contract for Twitter to display real-time tweets within Google's search results. Twitter responded by extending its search contract with Bing and Google now displays Google Plus postings via its search results.

Now here's a little something else from the folks at Google. In the campaign to integrate rich snippets within a website I was producing, I ran my website through the Google Webmaster's rich snippet testing tool. For added identifying purposes, I was told to add a "rel=author" markup within my header. Adding this, some additional markup and connecting it to my Google profile displays me as the author of the blog post via my Google Plus profile within search results. Cool?? Yeah. Maybe.

We'll have to see just how far Google can stretch its brand equity...and the trust in that brand name. We'll also have to see just how much Google saturates Plus posts within its "natural" search results. It will also be interesting to see how Google will determine whose posts are worthy or not...The SEO's, SEM's, and Inbound marketer's job is NEVER done. We're just figuring out this Ping-whatever you call it thing! For now I'll have no problems with my newfound Google Plus posts being posted within Google's search results.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed