Google social search goes global
I don’t know how many of you have been following the whole Google social search story but it has been worthy of almost soap-opera treatment. Facebook hired a PR company to push negative stories about Social Search in the press. Facebook claims that Google’s practices raise “serious privacy concerns,” and it’s unhappy with the fact that Google can use Facebook data for its service without Facebook’s permission. It’s noticeable that in Google’s latest blog post about Social Search, Twitter is mentioned three times while Facebook is nowhere to be seen as Google thumbs it’s nose at the social network giant. And now Social Search should be available in 19 languages with more languages on the way.
For those of you that don’t know…According to Google – Google Social Search helps you discover relevant content from your social connections, a set of your online friends and contacts. Content from your friends and acquaintances is sometimes more relevant and meaningful to you than content from any random person. For example, an online movie review is useful, but a movie review from your best friend can be even better.
I’m not 100% sure why you wouldn’t simply ask your best friend but still –that’s a moot point because, in reality, your “friends” are quite loosely defined and include people in your Google Talk friends list, your Google Contacts, people you’re following on Buzz and Google Reader and other networks you’ve linked from your Google profile or Google Account. Google can also find your friends on public networks such as Twitter and Facebook and gather the data from their public connections as well.
One must bear in mind that Microsoft said the decision to launch a more social search was down to research it commissioned which found that 90 per cent of people seek advice from family and friends as part of the decision-making process – the so-called ‘friend effect’. So – whatever we think of this situation we had better pay attention to it because it seems that Social Search SEO is set to become even more important than before.
If you’re serious about fully opening your mind up to the best search and social marketing for your money, speak to us.