Some virtually silent changes were made to Google’s search recently. I say virtually silent, because with all the hubbub of SOPA/PIPA going on, most people didn’t notice. These changes are kind of a big deal. I think the best way to explain is to demonstrate how it has affected your search.
Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter have all been sparring back and forth over content and indexing. It’s part of the growing pains, and it’s fun to watch (if you’re a nerd like me). But this week, Google’s big change involved a change to the Google Social Search, which began in 2009.
The goal of this change is keep broadening the scope of Search so it understands not only content but people and relationships. The three new features of Social Search are Personal Results, Profiles in Search and People and Pages.
Personal Results1 will offer you your Google+ photos and posts, both your own and those specifically shared with you.
Screenshot highlighting personal search
Profiles in Search1 will display people from your Google+ circles and people you may be interested in following.
Picture of Google search highlighting people and pages
People and Pages2 – this is probably my favorite part of the changes. It’s like word-of-mouth social indexing. See image 2
Log in to your Google account and try typing some broad general search terms and check out the changes.
Coffee is a favorite general search. For me, it shared 10 personal results, some people and pages results, but not much in the way of profile suggestions.
When searching Samsung TV, I got some interesting results that friends had shared and because Samsung is in one of my circles, I got to see some pics I would have missed from CES.
Google is leveraging content across the social-scape. Search results are getting more and more personal and they’re bringing word-of-mouth to the web. If you’re brand isn’t active in Google+ and other social portals as well – you could be losing valuable search results. The key is to consistently post content worth sharing, that encourages your followers to share and that will help them remember your brand while they engage their social portals.
