'Net Features : google, real-time search

Google+ Updates: Real-Time Search, Hashtags and YouTube

Michael Garrity — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:00:00 GMT

Yesterday, Google released a video featuring its Senior Vice President of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, announcing that Google+ is going to be getting big updates in both real-time search and hashtag support.

The company's social network, which thus far hasn't exactly found mainstream success, will now feature search results that update instantly (the service just got its own search capabilities last month) and hashtags that are clickable. These clickable tags will then take users to search results for the terms.

"We're trying to make it easier to follow and contribute to live events on Google+," says Gundotra, "Including breaking news, sporting events and many others."

When it comes to search, relevance and punctuality are what drive this new update; now that Google has a unique pool of crowd-created information, it can produce real-time results. In fact, G+ posts have already started being integrated into Web search results. (Maybe that's bad timing after employee Steve Yegge's harsh critique of the social network on Google+ yesterday.)

In other G+ news, Google has made it possible for users to link their YouTube accounts with their Google+ profiles. Now videos shared with you on the social network will be added directly to your YouTube homepage.

Linking the two profiles is a matter of going to the "Sharing" tab in your YouTube account settings; there will be a link prompting you to "manage all your Google connected accounts" and from there you can join the two.

This isn't the first time that Google has incorporated G+ into one of their many other services (or even with YouTube, which has already had Hangouts integration), but it is probably the biggest merger since Plus accounts were linked to Google Docs.

Facebook Connect Driving Engagement, Website Visits

Mike Phillips — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:38:00 GMT

Facebook Connect launched one year ago and, so far, it's having a positive impact for website developers. In its simplest form, Facebook Connect allows website visitors to log in to websites and share content with a click - sending that website's content to the user's wall, which is then viewable by all of their friends and social connections, or as a private message. But it goes beyond that. Facebook Connect can also work with mobile devices, desktops and even gaming consoles. As users become more accustomed to sharing content through Facebook and essentially carrying their Facebook identities with them as they surf the Web, website owners have the possibility of their content being spread to a massive audience, very easily. This might have something to do with Facebook now being the Web's third-largest site where users watch online video. Logically, if you produce Web video, you will certainly want a Facebook Connect button right next to it so users can share it with their network.

From Facebook's Ethan Beard, who leads the Facebook Developer Network: "From social widgets like the Comments Box, Share button and Live Stream Box to deeper integrations including log in, Facebook Connect is helping developers drive more traffic to their site, ease the registration process, and provide a more engaging experience for users. By adding social elements through Facebook Connect, websites in a variety of verticals are revolutionizing industries."

Below are some pretty impressive numbers that show not only the scope of implementation of Facebook Connect, but also the potentional. Either way, there are more than 350 million Facebook users, and however they decide to share content is good for website owners. News like this is even more important in light of Google's recently launched real-time search. Learn more about Facebook Connect and how to implement it on your site.

More than 80,000 websites and devices have implemented Facebook Connect
More than 60 million Facebook users are engaging with Facebook Connect on external services each month
Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have implemented Facebook Connect

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Google's Real-Time Search Changes Everything

Mike Phillips — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:59:00 GMT

The real-time Web is here. Google has officially jumped into real-time search, taking full advantage of its recent partnerships and changing the face of search engine optimization. Conduct a search on Google and you might now see a sizable part of the page dedicated to real-time search. This is a scrolling, live update of content from across the Web about your query and one of the most significant public-facing changes Google has made in a long time. It's also one of the biggest changes to SEO (as it applies to Google) in recent history.

The real-time updates - or "Latest results" - take up a significant portion of screen space. After the sponosored listings at the top of the page, then the top organic result comes the real-time updates. In some cases, the box is also very close to the fold. In short, as it stands today, your company's organic listings might have already changed dramatically. While the total number of results does not seem to have changed, you might have dropped below the fold. That means checking your search positions immediately, and getting to work on improving them.

Below is a Google results page for "Obama health care." The first result is the top result, then you will see the real-time results. The bottom result after the real-time box is just above the fold. This is a hot topic, so keep in mind that not all queries will produce real-time results, or results will be ordered differenlty. For example, a search for "zhu zhu" (a popular toy this holiday season) shows real-time results, but at the very bottom of the page. Also impacting the position of real-time results and normal organic listings will be the number of paid search results.

One thing is for certain - Web professionals' stock in Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca just went through the roof. Those companies are now partners, waist-deep in the Google mix; and that's where many of the real-time results are coming from. In short, if you're not on some or all of these networks, it's time to get started. And you must go beyond just making a profile. These real-time results will take into account your social graph - the connections you make and your "authority" in the space, as well as the content you provide on these networks. We're talking quality here. Businesses must provide value to their social connections. For example, if you tweet an important piece of information and it gets re-tweeted by your followers, you can bet Google will take notice. Google will be examining accounts' social stock and including those in the updates - on the first page of Google. You will also notice that real-time results are not limited to social networks, but include blogs and other websites. Content creation and optimization (creative copy, keyword-friendliness, etc.) becomes a mission-critical business objective.

It will also be interesting to see if these new partner networks get flooded with "content noise," once publishers realize the opportunity. It's quite possible the personal space users feel they have within networks like Facebook will be come serious spam magnets.

Don't miss Website Magazine's February issue. Included is Dante Monteverde's SEO Corner, focusing on optimization for Google's Social Search and real-time results.

Below is a brief video of Google's latest innovation. It's not hard to see the impact looming for Web professionals.

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