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Tag: Google

  • Google “My Social Circle” Invading The SERPs

    Google Buzz with its “Connected Sites”option is deeper, and perhaps more insidious, than we thought. It appears, that in addition to insinuating itself into Gmail, Gchat and Google’s mobile services, through Google My Social Circle Google Buzz is picking up information from sites listed in your Google Profile and including “Social Content” in the actual search results, blended as they might News or Video content.

    My Mumbai Social Circle
    My Mumbai Social Circle

    I was reading a blog post from Small Business SEM’s Matt McGee this morning in which he referenced a search result for “small business reputation management“. So I clicked the link and got the following results set:

    Results for Small Business Reputation managerment
    Results for Small Business Reputation managerment

    In case it’s not obvious, you can see in the image above two referenced blog posts from sites I frequent run by industry friends Matt McGee and Outspoken Media (Lisa Barone).

    My first thought was “Wow, that’s kind of cool. I wonder why Mat Siltala’s not there” ;).

    And then I drilled down to see what was driving this particular social graph. It’s interesting to see where Google draws data regardless and in this case, more so because assumptions are being made about my likes and dislikes in this Google, My Social Circle by inference from other sites I frequent.

    My Social Circle - Reminiscent of LinkedIns Degrees of separation
    My Social Circle – Reminiscent of LinkedIn's Degrees of separation

    As you can see My Social Circle includes:

    • Direct connections from Google Chat buddies,
    • Direct connections from sites such as Twitter and FriendFeed (that’s a lot of data)
    • Secondary Connections linked by inference to my direct connections

    So basically, Google has digested all of the data from those accounts I have listed on my personal Google Profile page and used them to assemble this My Social Circle idea. And, with my social circle defined, my search results are further personalized.

    This is a good thing right? Google’s trying to help out and give me what I’m looking for, right?

    Maybe.

    At this point the implementation is pretty mild. It’s a nice leverage of the data available thanks to the Google Personal Profile page – personal profile pages which are all the more prominent thanks to buzz. And, my position that the implementation is mild is based on my usage.

    I’m a business user and I keep it clean. I may be occasionally smart-alecky but other than that I don’t have anthing online I don’t want my mother to see.

    If this isn’t you if you might have something to hide, and particularly if you browse on a public or work computer, you may want to reconsider whether Buzz is for you. While the idea of my industry friends who blog showing up in search results is OK for me, it might not be OK for you. And, even if you’re squeaky clean, Google sometimes gets it wrong.

    Have you seen any examples of this? What searches? I’d love to see screen shots.

  • What’s the (Google) Buzz?

    As anyone with Gmail or their ear to ground has realized Google Buzz has been released.

    The Buzz on Google Buzz

    I was both excited and hesitant to try it out. I was excited because Chrome in all its sleek simplicity has been my chosen browser for a few months, and Gmail and Google Talk have also been a daily mainstay for some time now. I was hesitant because Orkut never clicked with me and most importantly I really don’t want yet another social media hub.


    The main features as noted in the Buzz launch video are:

    1. Auto following

    2. Rich, fast sharing experience

    3. Public and private settings

    4. Inbox integration

    5. “Just the good stuff” – recommendations , 3 word status collapsed at the bottom

    The auto follow feature I can give or take. I see a small value in this but to me it’s nothing to write home about. We were all able to kick start all our other social media sites with little trouble. The next two features: Rich, fast sharing experience and the public and private settings don’t’ seem much different from Facebook. There maybe be small differences but again nothing ground breaking.

    Trying to see what the Buzz is about


    Inbox integration is a little tricky to gage in value. It is interesting that you get interactive buzz message directly in your inbox. But Google Buzz is one button away from my inbox, it shows up and crowds my inbox just like any other alert but it does offer some ease of use.


    Buzz includes “just the good stuff?” According to whom? I guess if I were going to let someone choose what I want to see and not want to see it would be Google. They seem to have done a decent job thus far. I primarily use their search engine. Did I just welcome Big Brother? Anyway, I am questionable about the way they achieve giving you “the good stuff.” If your friends buzz on something then it shows up for you even if you don’t follow the person who originally buzzed, I can deal with that but in one part of the release video they mentioned reducing noise in social media which makes this sound counter-intuitive. The other way they dictate “the good stuff” is by collapsing “boring” comments to the bottom.

    Boring to me seems pretty vague. In the launch video he used a “3 word update” as an example. I don’t like this because I love cryptic 3 word updates. I really do. Cryptic song lyrics are more interesting to me typically than knowing that you just washed your dog and it looks adorable wrapped in a blanket. This feature leaves me on the fence.

    My initial impression after playing a little was: a little Twitter and a little Facebook with a boring layout– but it’s accessible, since I already live in Gmail. I might try it for a while and see where it goes.

    Short on style but might look good after some time
    Short on style but might look good after it grows out.


    Then… I saw the mobile version and the sky lit up with rainbows. Unicorns jumped from cloud to cloud and I saw Google Buzz in a whole new way. Well, almost… the mobile app for iPhone and Android does look really impressive. The integration of Buzz, Place Pages and Google Maps looks amazingly useful. So, next time I’m bored on a Saturday night I can check to see who’s buzzed nearby and might be talking up a happening spot within my vicinity. I can then check the Place Page to see a review on their location and what others have to say about it. If it suits my mood off to the party I’m going. Then I can even buzz where I’m going and see if any friends want to join me.

    Yes, it does sound a bit Twitter-ish but with some added convenience. I haven’t tested this yet but at writing it’s Mardi Gras weekend. I plan on keeping an eye on the local buzzes and see what I can get myself into. If you’re in New Orleans this weekend buzz about it and lets see how this thing works!



    The app on android even has voice recognition so you can speak your buzz and post. I wonder if you can hold it in the air and post cryptic lyrics straight from the stage? As I mentioned before, you can seek out user updates based on location, find businesses close by, and view their Place Page and see Buzz updates regarding that business on the Place Page.

    We’ve all seen most of these things to some extent in a lot of other apps but after thinking about all the different apps that do various things you have to stop and account for the fact that this is one app that does all of it and its integrated with my already existing email.


    The first Buzz I saw upon signing up was “Hi, I‘m Google. I’m ripping off twitter and spamming all gmail users about it with a splash screen in front of their inbox. Have a nice day.” Earl’s comment made me laugh. I think I might have been ready to react the same way but I’ve decided to check it out for a while.

    One of the forward facing aspects of Google Buzz is their development of “a suite of open protocols to create a complete read/write developer API.” So, it looks to me like it will be up to the developers of the world to make it really take off but so far so good.