I've been manically playing with Google Plus for about an hour now and, while there is disagreement here among the editorial team at Search Engine Land, I give it a qualified "thumbs up." At first glance many people will dismiss Google Plus as redundant and derivative of Twitter and Facebook, in particular. This was also true of the ill-fated Buzz. But this is a much better and more thoughtfully designed product than Buzz. Familiar UI but Takes Getting Used To Accordingly the interface is familiar and relatively intuitive but Google Plus still takes some "getting used to." Some have alre [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: +1 | Google: Google+ | Google: Social Search | Top News

Google's long expected second shot at taking on Facebook in the social networking space has arrived in the form of the Google+ Project. It has some interesting twists on the social networking model but is far from a Facebook-killer. That Name The terrible name is a bad start. Google+? Google+! I can't even question or exclaim about the bad name without it looking bad in writing. Pronounced "Google Plus," the product is officially written as Google+ -- making placing any punctuation after the name fairly awkward. Seriously, I'm cursing whoever made the final decision to go with Google+ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: General | Google: +1 | Google: Google+ | Google: Social Search | Top News

Google's +1 button is rolling out internationally. The company has announced that 1 buttons will start showing on a few select Google search engines at first: Google.co.uk Google.de Google.jp Google.fr The +1 button will be "expanding quickly to most other Google search sites" in the near future. Up until now, the +1 button has only been seen on Google.com's English-language search results. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: +1 | Top News

Last week we confirmed Google was showing raw +1 counts in the search results and now today, Google seems to be testing showing location based +1 counts. @tomcritchlow shared a screen shot with us showing Google only displaying the people in New York who +1'ed a page. Here is that screen shot: As you can see, it shows 145 people in New York have +1'ed this page. If you are logged in, you would see your friends who have +1'ed the page. Here is a screen shot: If you are signed out, I personally just get all the +1 counts for this page. I am based in New York, not New York [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: +1

Google is now showing the Google +1 counts for logged out users. When the Google +1 feature launched in March, searchers were only able to see who in their Google network +1'ed a search result. Now, if you search while logged out, Google will show you the total +1 count for some search results. This may help Google promote the Google +1 feature and encourage additional users to try it. Search Engine Watch spotted the change earlier. Google has since confirmed to us that it is new and showing to all signed-out users. "We're now showing aggregate +1 annotations for signed-out users in sear [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: +1 | Google: Social Search | Google: Web History & Search History | Google: Web Search | Top News

Google’s new +1 feature was one of SMX Advanced Seattle most engaging sessions and, as a speaker, I have received a wide variety of feedback and questions. It seems this feature has fomented a great deal of speculation and inquiry. Here is a bit more food for thought. Like vs. Google +1: What Are The Main Differences? As Google product manager Daniel Dulitz mentioned, Google +1 is an annotation system which reinforces the interactions between organic and paid results, web pages, and your Google contacts. That being said, your Google contacts are not necessarily your friends… and, you [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Google: +1 | Search & Social

Google has launched a new "Me On The Web" section within its Google Dashboard area, which seems designed to push more people toward creating Google Profiles, as well as create greater awareness of how things that leak out of Facebook and other social networks may end up on Google. The Facebook Factor Perhaps I'm reading too much into the feature. But I think it has to be taken in context with Facebook's recent accusations that Google has been somehow been secretly collecting information about people from Facebook and other social networks without their permission or their knowledge. Exami [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: +1 | Google: Accounts & Profiles | Google: Dashboard | Google: Social Search | Top News

Although webmasters can install the new Google +1 button on their websites today, it may be a little while before the expected +1 analytics are available. Google product manager Christian Oestlien tells us that the company is working with launch partners to make sure the reporting is accurate before offering the data on a wide basis. He also shared a preview of what to expect when +1 analytics is rolled out. How Google +1 Analytics Will Work When it's ready, Google will report aggregate +1 data in four categories: Geography: webmasters will learn where +1 activity is happening D [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: +1 | Google: Analytics

As expected, Google is now offering +1 buttons that can be placed on any web page via a short code snippet. The code/button is supported in 44 languages, but +1 activity continues to show only on English-language search results on Google.com. (Google says it's working to expand +1 worldwide.) Webmasters can use Google's self-serve code generator to customize the size and language of the button, along with a few other advanced options. There's more about the advanced options here, and be sure to read the FAQs at the bottom where you'll learn, among other things, that Google recommend [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: +1 | Google: SEO | Google: Social Search | Top News

It's official. Google's +1 button for websites will be coming tomorrow. A launch partner accidentally tipped the news of the release to TechCrunch, and Google's since confirmed with me that it will be happening. UPDATE: See our new post about the actual launch of +1 buttons: It’s Here: Google +1 Buttons For Websites. Google tells me that any site will be able to to add the +1 button code to their site as of tomorrow, through a self-serve process. The company says a full blog post and more details will be posted tomorrow. My previous post from earlier this month, Just Weeks Away, A P [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: +1 | Top News

Google's Matt Cutts confirmed this morning that Google has lifted J.C. Penney's SEO penalty, that the Panda update will continue to rollout internationally and offered numerous SEO- and search-related tips in a live webchat on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel. More than a thousand viewers tuned in but, for those who weren't able to stay for the full 90 minutes, or who missed it entirely, here's a recap of some of the more important topics.. J.C. Penney Penalty Lifted Responding to several questions about J.C. Penney, Cutts confirmed our report earlier this week that the pe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: General | Google: +1 | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Google: Webmaster Central

I read the news today, oh boy. The Facebook army had just declared a war. Well, a smear campaign against Google. For the record, Facebook denies that it actually ran such a campaign, but it does confirm it has issues with how Google is using some of Facebook's social data. Do those allegations stand up? Let's take a look. The required prerequisite reading is the Daily Beast article talking about the PR campaign that Facebook attempted. Also see reactions to the news in this Techmeme roundup. Let's start with the allegations. I emailed over to Facebook: So I read the Daily Beast article. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Google: +1 | Google: OpenSocial | Google: Social Search | Top News

Today at the Google I/O conference, Google gave developers a preview of how the Google +1 button can be inserted into websites, some of the stats it will offer and said it would be available "in a matter of weeks." The button will have a counter display similar to how other buttons from Facebook and Twitter work. The image over on the right is a mockup of how it might look at the Huffington Post, as created by Google. +1 Button Comes In "Weeks" No, the Huffington Post doesn't yet have this button. No one does yet, Google said. But Timothy Jordan, the developer advocate from Google who lea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: General | Google: +1 | Google: I/O | Top News

The Google I/O developers conference has turned into an event where people anticipate big announcements about forthcoming Google products. But at Google I/O 2011 next week, don't expect Google to rollout a shiny new social network. Expect little to do with social at all. That's the word from a source close to Google. There will be no major social announcement coming. Google apparently wants to set expectations appropriately after months of rumors that something would be coming. Sniff, No Social Circles? No Video Conferencing? What rumors? Back in March, Google Preparing To Launch Social " [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: +1 | Google: Marketing | Google: Social Search | Top News

When Facebook rolled out its Send button last week, I laughed. I even mocked on Twitter that Facebook wouldn't be happy until our pages were full of buttons. But the Send button, as well as integrating other aspects of Facebook into websites, does make a lot of sense. In fact, it's beginning to make so much sense I've begun to wonder if Facebook has won the battle to be the one true login. So Many Doors, So Many Keys For as long as I can remember on the web, there's been talk about what a pain it is to remember a million passwords to sign in to a million different sites. Wouldn't it be bette [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Google: +1 | Stats: General | Top News

Here's a big dose of irony. Could Google +1 buttons or +1 data -- which Google uses to improve its search results -- come to rival Bing? Potentially. Bing +1, Anyone? The issue came up yesterday during Q&A following the keynote talk by Bing's director Stefan Weitz at our SMX Sydney conference. An audience member asked if Bing might use Google's +1 data in the way it currently uses Facebook data to reshape its results. Maybe, Weitz replied. He deftly dodged that right now, there's no automated way that Bing has to get that data. Even if that changes, I suspect Bing wouldn't actually us [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Copygate | Google: +1 | Microsoft: Bing | Top News

Just that quickly, Google has disabled the +1 button that was spotted online earlier today. The button was pieced together and seemed to work for a couple hours, though, as the comments on our story show, its integration into Google's search results wasn't real good due to the limited rollout of +1 so far. A Google spokesperson shared this statement about the disabled buttons: While we're thrilled that publishers are anxious to integrate the +1 button into their sites, we're still working things out and aren't quite ready for this to be publicly available just yet, so we're disabling [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: +1

Even though Google's +1 button isn't supposed to be ready for webmasters for a few months, they've already been spotted in the wild -- and they appear to work. Yvo Schaap points to Fanity.com, where a +1 button has been embedded in a social widget next to Facebook and Twitter buttons. (See image at right.) Schaap says he did some digging into Google's code and "found the button endpoint hiding from me, obfuscated, in a stray piece of javascript." I'm not a code wizard, but (assuming I get it right) here's what the button should look like for this individual story URL. (C'mon, +1 it -- [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: +1

It's difficult to gauge the potential impact of Google's new +1 initiative on marketers because of one somewhat mysterious factor: consumer behavior. When compared to Facebook, with its "Like" button, Google likely has relatively few users who've bothered to set up profiles. And, if a consumer doesn't have a profile, using +1 isn't an option unless they set one up -- which is a lot of trouble to go through to express your approval about a search listing or, in the future, a website. Let me recap how +1 works for advertisers. All ads (unless you opt out) will show a greyscale +1 button besid [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: +1 | Google: AdWords

For an in-depth overview of Google's new +1 extension of social search, see Danny Sullivan's Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button. In addition, Matt McGee has written How To Get Google +1 Buttons For Your Website for publishers interested in adding the new button. Danny's article briefly discusses how +1 will be used in conjunction with AdWords. I was able to speak to Google this afternoon about paid search and +1 and get a bit more detail. +1 Ads Should See a CTR Lift According to Christian Oestlien, Google's Group Product Manager for Ads, +1 will appear on all Google s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: +1 | Google: AdWords | Google: Social Search | Google: Web Search | Top News