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google+, google photos, google docs, google maps…google internet?

    

The infographic on the right details the  effectiveness of high popularity on Google+ and the way it transitions to search result rankings on Google Web Search.

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Launched only 10 months ago, Google Plus is Google’s last and grandest attempt to gain a foothold in the social networking market after the abject failure of Google’s last hyped social network debut, Google Buzz. Today, Google+ is ranked 3rd on the social web for monthly visitors, trailing only Twitter, and of course, Facebook. Even with that, news on Google+ has been quiet – it has a well developed niche of current users, but doesn’t drive any excitement – most likely because of it’s lack of colorful “bloat” – a mixture of apps, games, 3rd party disasters, and stupid teenagers.

But it increasingly looks like this may be the calm before the storm. In a bold move, Google merged Google Places (the internet’s most widely used location look up service) and Google+ to create Google+ Local, integrating free Zagat ratings and Google Places listings with Google+ pages – effectively meaning that if you click for details on a business on Google Maps, it will, at some point, push you straight through to a company’s Google+ page. It’s sort of like the Facebook search bar…except it’s on the world’s largest search engine and highest visibility website. Now – while aggressive – this isn’t pushing users to go through Google+ for everything related to a business’s presence online.

What IS going to push EVERYTHING business page related through Google+ is a combination of two main things:

1. Integration of Google+ profiles and +1’s into Google Web Search results. Active Google+ pages rocket to the top of Google search results for people logged into Google when they search.
2. Direct Google Web Search bar access to Google+ pages. Take a look at this neat trick in Google Web Search if you use a “+” in front of a search term:

The top search suggestion automatically reserves for an applicable Google+ page, meaning potentially, the very first search result for even the world’s biggest and most searched for brands won’t be a proprietary website, but the company’s official Google+ page. Right now this feature is only available for what seems to be a group of well known brands or people, but will be rolled out to all business pages eventually. 


Google is also implementing fixes for their last major hurdle: their business pages are just dull and boring. From the above link:

The first thing you’ll notice is the new layout and design for the listing for your business. All your basic business information is still available. And by streamlining the layout and putting more focus on photos and reviews, we hope to help you highlight what makes your business truly unique.

Google did us the favor of rolling out the updates to a select group of small businesses to get an idea of what “new” Google+ pages will look like. Updated Google+ business pages include direct Zagat integration and direct OpenTable integration, marking the first foray into third party/page applications. The page for +The Meatball Shop is a perfect example, showing the updated features, but unlike Facebook, no increased bloat.


While it’s an ambitious overtaking and lofty rhetoric for a social networking that has not generated the heat that many thought it would, if performed correctly, Google+ will put themselves in a position to perhaps rival Facebook in less than five years, mainly because instead of trying to fit the conventional internet into a social network, they will make the internet fit a social network via their massive search provider presence. This should be interesting to watch.
Guess you’d better +1 this post.

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