Google News: Benefitting Business Owners?
Google has been busier than usual this week, and their blog post of 5/1/10, gives all the news, but if you're in a hurry, here's what's going on:
Brand Identification :
Now, when you search for a product, don't be surprised if the popular brands pop up first in your search results.
Google says, "For example, if you're taking on a new river-rafting hobby, it's quite likely you don't have a clue about kayak manufacturers just yet. So, we wanted to make it easier for you to find the brands other people consider useful for popular product searches."
That's cool for the big companies, and maybe not so cool for little mom & pops or online stores that don't have a recognizable brand. So, when you search for "snow skis," for example, here's what it looks like:
Virtual Keyboards:
When searching in a language other than English, it might be difficult for folks who speak other languages to type their searches into the search box. Now, you'll see a small keyboard next to the search results box that will allow you to type in whatever language you're searching in. Here's an example for a Greek search:
Interesting and very helpful for folks who speak other languages, I'd imagine. This is a great innovation. If you're speaking a different language from English, let me know how this works!
Similar pages included
You know how when you search at Google the similar searches appear at the bottom of the page? Now, Google is also providing similar pages. Here's an example for "organic gardening":
Google also added "Image Search" for Android and iPhones, and they improved mobile place pages for those smart phones, as well.
Google's been busy lately, and these are all search elements that help the search client, not necessarily the businesses being searched for. The page rank of the similar pages are 6s and 7s in this example, so unless you have a site with VERY strong page rank, don't expect to show up there.
I do appreciate the way that these results and the "social" real-time results are appearing at the bottom of the page. And have you noticed this:
I just found out from Google that I have around 2 thousand people in my social circle, according to Google, which is weird because I have almost 7,000 followers on Twitter alone. But it lists all the people I'm connected to and tells me every place that they have social content on the Web, too.
And when you click on "My social content," it tells you all the places you have social content on the Web. It's missing a bunch. I'll be checking to see why so much is missing. Hmm… Have to beef up my Google Profile. We sure have good reasons to do so, especially now, eh?
