Posts on State of Search about ‘Social search’

Google gets social layer by layer, next step: social sitelinks

The actual “Google Me” in its full potential apparently will not be there until spring 2011 but in the meanwhile it does look as if Google is pasting the new social layers onto their search results step by step. After the “shared by” layer which was spotted in October and Hotpot in November, this time its Google itself revealing another one: Social sitelinks.

Do a search for “Twitter” or “YouTube” and you will see a friends name, combined with, if they have it, a profile photo. (Be aware, it doesn’t seem to be happening on every search, try several times if you don’t see it or update your Google Profile) The link goes to the friends’ content on the specific website. In my case when I search for Twitter I get Danny Sullivan and Zee, chief editor of The Next Web. The weird thing is that Google also returns Bing and Yahoo as my friends… (more…)

“Google Me” delayed until spring 2011: what are we waiting for?

We still don’t know what it exactly is or is going to be. But Mashable reports that we’ll have to wait some more before we are actually going to see Google’s latest attempt on going social, “Google Me”.

It seems as if disagreements on the design, purpose, and execution are holding up the project. This is something which we are used to when it comes to Bing, but Google now apparently also is feeling the pain of the large company and has to deal with bureaucracy. A source told Mashable “that he/she has heard “tales of disorganization and too many different teams working parallel or in conflict.”” (more…)

Search and social: A match made in heaven?

Its not very often that search marketing makes the likes of the BBC news, however it was interesting to see the BBC website run a story this week stating the future of search is social.

The search engine landscape is such an interesting environment at this present moment in time for a number of reasons – for example:

  • New players in the market – We have seen the likes of Blekko launch to the public, as well as seen the continuing decline of perenial trier Ask.com
  • Changes to the search results pages themselves – such as Local results on Google or Google Instant
  • Increasing influence of personalisation
  • Increasing integration of social networks within the search results, i.e Facebook/Bing and Twitter/Google RTS

As such this has led to a hugely different landscape for search marketeers of which the vast majority of readers of this blog are. The continuing evolution of the engines not only affects marketeers, one can’t help thinking traditional users of the search engines have had a lot to take in over the course of the last 12 months – without the benefit of industry knowledge. (more…)

SES Berlin 2010: Integration of Search Engine Marketing in the Online Marketing Mix

This post is written by Thomas Hertkorn of Ads2people who is guest blogging for us on SES Berlin 2010. Keep an eye on his posts!

Speakers: Marcus Koch, Goldbach Interactive GmbH blue summit
moderated by Thomas Bindl Refined Labs

Here we go again after the break with Marcus Koch speach about the integration of SEM in the Online Marketing Mix. The subject sounds exciting, lets see what happens.

Again the big “last ad tacking” problem will be main subject of this session.

Marcus said it is important for people to be aware of the complete process of a conversion. Not only in the way of search funnels then more in the way of different advertising channels. Everyone should notice that there are correlations between different advertising channels. (more…)

Another social local layer: Google announces Hotpot

Slowly the lines of the new “Google Me” are showing up. Eric Schmidt already announced, in between his weird statements, that Google will not be making a new Facebook but will be showing us “Social layers” on top of the search results: adjustments to the SERPS or other Google products which will add to the social experience.

Now its time for the next layer. On the day Facebook announced their ‘messaging system’, which will probably not be the Gmail killer which it was suggested to be, Google launched “Hotpot” a personalized recommendations engine based on what you and your friends are liking.

Hotpot is another step in social AND in local. It looks at Google Places data and then looks at reviews and ratings from you and your friends. Based on these ratings it looks for similarities and then recommends you a place. (more…)

Facebook New Feature: The start of a Beautiful Friendship (Page)?

Facebook have released a new, slightly creepy feature, apparently around a week ago. I’m not sure if this is a phased roll-out, or if I’m just not watching closely enough, as I discovered this feature yesterday. Hang tight and I’ll take you on a little pedestrian journey through my social sphere and then we won’t be strangers any more.

Lunchtime – I see that my friend and fellow SEO Chicks and State of Search blogger Lisa Myers, has posted a new picture of baby Isla. I click on the picture and write my comment, then go to Lisa’s profile, to update myself on what she’s been up to in the past few days of maternity leave. That’s when I spotted this… (more…)

How to avoid the Twitter link graph cannibalisation – Pro SEO Seminar 2010

In London at this moment the ProSEO seminar, organized by Distilled, is going on. There is a great line up with great content. Our blogger Annabel Hodges is there. She will be writing about several sessions there. Here’s the first one.

First up Rand looks at how to avoid losing all your links to twitter, instead of your own site.

Social sharing is gradually replacing traditional page linking. So are pages linking out less? Actually it doesn’t seem so. People aren’t linking out less, but good content isn’t getting links the way it used to.

How can we still earn traditional links? (more…)

Bing integrates Facebook into their search: the next step in social search integration

It was clear that anytime soon something was going to happen between Bing and Facebook. Microsoft and Facebook already were working together on the search inside Facebook, but last night they announced a further cooperation. In the US (not in Europe yet!) Bing now uses Facebook “like” data to give you results from within your social circle on Facebook. Also they will be showing Facebook-powered people search results

The move is mainly important for Bing to get more attention for their search engine. They now have access to data which their biggest rivals Google don’t have. That makes that the step towards Bing might become easier for many users. The deal however won’t upset the search landscape just now, but it has potential. (more…)

Link Building The Philanthropic Way

Recently I’ve been reading a few posts across the search and social blogosphere touching on the issue of philanthropic campaigns within the digital industry. I’m always interested because it’s often about helping a worthy cause through the simplest of methods. If I can help out, why wouldn’t I? (NB. If there were ever any Catholics in my family ancestry, I definitely inherited their guilt. Taoist family guilt maybe?). It’s also often the root of some of the more innovative ideas around.

oil spill birdOne post that got me thinking was by Justin Kownacki, entitled People Are Desperate to Care About Something. Is It You?. His remarks centre on humans’ natural inclination to want to help, and how we can cash in on that through strong imagery. He does make a good point: the general populous do want to care, they want to feel that they’ve helped a good cause so why not give them the imagery and the method to do so? It’s a trick that has worked for years – buy this washing up liquid with this very cute child on the front of it. It’s 50p more than your standard choice but 40p of that extra cost will go to charity. It’s no major impact on my shopping bill and it’ll help out those cute kids clearly portrayed on the front of said washing up bottle.

fairy liquid make a wishThey’re age-old marketing tactics that may be as subtle as a sledge hammer but let’s face it – the brand makes their money, they help out a good cause that wouldn’t otherwise get that help and the consumer gets both the product they want and the smug satisfaction of knowingthey’ve done a good deed that day. Who’s the loser? (more…)

The Evolution of Social Search (presentation)

There has been a lot of talk about “social search” in the past year. The Search Engines are trying as hard as they can to catch up with what’s going on with the evolution of social media. The best examples off course being the integration of Twitter and the “results from your social circle”. It seems as if many are still looking for ways to get a grip on the social search. And that will probably go on for a while.

Below a presentation I found on Slideshare about Social Search. It answers some questions and raises some others, but its a nice watch. Enjoy.

The Evolution of Social Search
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