One of the most interesting news around Google Search last year was the introduction of Knowledge Graph, in May for English queries and in December 2012 for many other languages. Now the Knowledge Graph “covers 570 million entities, 18 billion facts and connections, and about three times as many queries globally as when we first launched it”, as Aaron Brown proudly wrote. (more…)
Google gives us a lot of headaches when it comes to business, but through the years they have also given us a lot of things to smile or even laugh about. April fools jokes, Easter Eggs, you name it.
Since the end of the year is approaching we figured it would be fun to look back at some fun things Google did in the past like those Easter Eggs and April fools jokes. Every day until the end of the year we will share one on our Google+ page. On this page we will collect them all. All jokes are collected by our specialist on this area: Michel Wester. (more…)
Google+ is Google’s Social Network, or at least, that is what we all think it is. It is Google’s effort to push out Facebook and to be the biggest not just in search, but also in social. But in fact Google+ is not intended to be that Facebook killer. Yes, off course, if Google gets the chance, they will definitely try to beat Facebook. But Google+ in fact is more about data: it will be part of every Google product in the future.
If you listen carefully to what Googlers are saying you will get some nice insights into what the intentions from Google are. They are going to change the online world with Google Plus and the crux is data, identification, personalization and integration.
Note: this post has been edited since it first was published in July 2011, just after the launch of Google+. The essence of the post is still the same, but information which enriches the post has been added. (more…)
Here’s another interesting small change I just spotted in the search results. We are now all familiar with the “your friends X,Y,Z and x-number of people +1′d this” texts below the search results. It shows us who of our friends, or to be more specific who from our social circles, have shared, or +1ed a specific search result. It is part of personalized search and it will trigger most of the searchers to click on a result quicker than they would if there was just a title, link and description.
Now Google seems to have taken another step to make things more personal and to ‘push’ Google+ at the same time. Next to a ”your friends X,Y,Z and x-number of people +1′d this” text it now says “Thank them”. And you can “thank them” on Google+ off course. (more…)
Last year when Google introduced Google+ Pages Google also introduced badges. Badges can be easily generated and embedded on a website to show you are a member and to get people to ‘follow’ you. As a company this gives you a way to offer your visitors a quick way to let them add your page to their circles.
Until now the badge was only suited for companies and brands but now Google has made a new badge specifically for personal profiles. So if you have a personal website and, of course a Google+ profile, you can embed a badge now so that visitors of your website or blog can add you to their circles. (more…)
Google will soon slightly change the way the current +1 button works. Since last year August you can share pages on Google+ via the button embedded on a website.
Ever since this was added you have to click on the button first to give the +1 after which you have to click again in to the share box to be able to share the post with your own circles on Google+. This is of course a unnecessary extra click to share a page and Google realized this to. Therefore the behavior of the button will be changed on short notice which means that you only have to click once to share an article.
After clicking the button a popup will appear immediately next or above the button where you can select the right circles and add a optional description. This way the button functions more like the buttons from Twitter and Facebook but you will always have the last step to select circles before you can share. Since we are part of a test group you can already see how this works on our site, just check the +1 button above (and compare that with other sites for example).
Currently the change is only available for people who signed up for this Google+ Platform Preview but the change will be live to all users soon.
Please read the addition made at the bottom of this post as well as the comments on how this post evolved.
The post was published quickly as I was excited to share my findings from a recent “test” I was working on. The way I reported on this test was flawed and I rushed to conclusions about the degree of the finding. It is now clear to me that the contents of the test page have not been indexed.
I have left the post live and relatively unchanged to demonstrate the fact that I clearly made a mistake here, I’m willing to acknowledge that fact and there is plenty that both myself and others can learn from this post (primarily, how not to run and report on an experiment). The mistakes made were a result of over excitement rather than any intention to misinform and I sincerely apologise for my mistakes.
I was hoping to have the evidence to include this in my last post when I stated that there were some major concerns with Google+, but I can now say with certainty: Google will ignore Robots.txt and index a page* that you have specifically blocked once the page has received a +1.
My concern was two-fold after having read this in Google’s FAQ on Google+ in that the wording suggests that either: a. any page that contains the +1 badge could be indexed (still possible) or that b. any page that has been +1′d could be indexed (now confirmed*) (more…)
Bradley Horowitz, Vice President Product Management Google+, has announced that teenagers are now allowed to sign up for the network. This means that Google+ is now open to a whole new group of potential users because before this announcement you’ve had to be at least 18 in order to join.
In most countries you now have to be at least 13 to use the service. In some countries the minimum age is higher, in the Netherlands for example it’s 16 and in Spain and South Korea 14. These are now the same requirements Facebook has when it comes to age regulations. (more…)
Google launch of Search Plus Your World has lead to a lot of discussion on different levels. There is the “do we want to get this much personalized?” question, there is the FTC “is Google favoring their own products too much” question and there is a privacy question floating around, but most of all its the “Has Google turned Evil?” question.
The mantra which used to define Google, ‘do no evil’ seems to have turned against them on the public opinion, or at least that of the tech industry. That could really hurt Google as a brand, but there is one other area in which Google could be hurting: the employees. Are the happy with Google changes? And what if they’re not, does that matter? One thing is clear for them it’s: follow the leader (Page) or leave. (more…)
When Google first launched Google+ there was a lot of rumor about the ‘real name policy’ which Google uses. You are only allowed to sign up to Google+ (and now to all Google products at once) with your real identity. Using a pseudonym is not allowed.
Google now launches a new feature to Google+ which will allow users to add a nickname to their Google Profile. Note though that the nickname is not the same as a pseudonym. Setting up an anonymous Google+ account will still not be possible. (more…)
In the past you could sign up for a Gmail account and that would be it. If you wanted a YouTube or Picasa account you could connect your Gmail to it, but you had to sign up independently for it. The same for your G+ account when Google first launched the service: even though they were connected you had to ‘sign up’ first.
Now if you decide to get a Gmail account you won’t have to sign up separately for all the other services anymore. Your Google Account is now also your Google+ account, your YouTube account and other Google products.
If you now go to the Google sign up page you will see that Google has redesigned the page and that they focus on the entire Google experience: “Your Google Account is more than just Search.” (more…)
Last week Google introduced “Search plus Your World” which integrates Google+ in to the search results. With the update Google also placed a new switch at the top right to turn off the personal results so you only see the non-personal results. These personal results are for example posts and pictures from Google+ but also all the recommendations from people within your own social circle and it even hides the +1 button. Unfortunately the big block “People and Pages on Google+” on the right is still shown, that should be hidden to I think.
You can use this switch but when you do a new search query then the personal results are just switched back on. But there is a simple cure for this if you don’t want these personal results or if you just think it clutters the search results to much. You can see the difference in the screenshot below after search for “YouTube”. (more…)
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