Notice anything odd about your Google+ profile? Does it rank incredibly well in Google’s search results for your own name? Colleagues note that their G+ profile now outranks other online identities that they’ve worked for years on. My own Google+ profile, just 5 months old, ranks #2 for my name. It now ranks higher than both my Twitter and Facebook profiles, even though I use those services far more often. Profiles aren’t the only thing ranking. Individual Google+ posts frequently appear in search results as well. Ranking for people’s names is one of the Holy Grails of search, like Amazon ranking for every book in print. With 7 billion people in the world, ranking on the first page for even a small portion of these is lucrative territory. As search and social focus more on the individual, the war over names has begun. How has Google won so much real estate on their own search pages in such a short period of time? Do they cheat? No, not really - more on this later. Google wins by employing really smart Search Engine Optimization techniques – the same SEO practices available to any online business. For Facebook especially, this is a sensitive issue. Facebook actively prevents Google from crawling most of its content, allowing big G to access “Fan” pages, but limiting information from regular profiles. Now that Google+ has entered the social game, this policy puts Facebook results at risk of dropping in rankings and losing search real estate. I often work with websites and startups wanting to build SEO features into their platform. If I were to build a social media service for SEO domination from scratch, I would build it exactly like Google+. Here's the takeaway: Use SEO to your competitive advantage, no matter your niche.
1. Incentivize Inbound Links
Not long ago, Google started displaying author photos in its search results. In order to display a photo, Google asks authors to add links from their webpages to their Google+ profile. This creates potentially millions of high quality links from the world’s most influential online publishers, all pointing to multiple Google+ profiles. Twitter and Facebook both benefit from similar links, but never before has a social media service offered such an incentive. Google's SEO Tactic: Require Authors to Link to their Google+ Profile
2. Internal Linking
One thing noted about Google+ when it was released was just how easy it was to be in lots of circles, or add lots of people to your own. People who struggled on Twitter for years to build up 1000 followers, suddenly found themselves in 2000 or 3000 Google+ circles, seemingly overnight. Google’s strategy to connect everyone on the planet also makes for good internal linking. Following more than 1000 people may not create a practical social experience, but it creates a great SEO opportunity. The more your content is shared in other people’s streams and profiles, then the more your content is crawled, indexed, and deemed important by search engines. Google's SEO Tactic: Encourage Large Circles Counts
3. Lots of Indexable Content
My public Google+ profile contains a wealth of information, all visible to search engines, including:
Biographical Information
Full Text of Public Posts
Photos
Links to people who have added me to their circles
Everything I have ever +1’d
Compare that to my Twitter account – limited to 160 characters of biographical information, or my Facebook profile, which reads like an auto-generated pamphlet. Consider how a search engine sees these pages. Take a look at the source code of any Google+ profile or use a tool SEO-browser (a search robot simulator) to see how many words appear on each profile.
Facebook – 275 Words
Twitter – 491 Words
Google+ – 2621 Words
Google structures content to provide a wealth of information for search engines, to index and serve in search results. Google's SEO Tactic: Search Engine Friendly Profiles
4. On-Page Optimization
Google+ makes it easy to share posts from others – a feature much like retweeting on Twitter or reblogging on Tumblr. These Google+ posts frequently show up in search results as their own entries. As the title tag is one of the most important aspects of on-page optimization, Google wisely choose longer, more descriptive title tags. Compare these to the shorter title tags offered by Facebook and Twitter, which often run no longer than three unique words. Here’s the title tag to 3 different posts, all by Rand Fishkin. Each of these posts is indexed by Google.
Twitter – Twitter / @randfish: Running test of Google+’s …
Google+ – Rand Fishkin – Google+ – Shocking how many of the folks featured in this post form…
Which do you think ranks better for a query with “Rand Fishkin” in the search? Google's SEO Tactic: Descriptive Title Tags
5. User Generated Content
Every post I’ve ever written on Google+ has been public. As a result, every post has been crawled and indexed by Google search. The privacy settings on the profiles are simple, intuitive and encourage openness. The big green button screams, “Pick me! Pick me!” Most Twitter posts are public by default, although unless a tweet becomes famous the 140 character limit prevents most tweets from reaching the definition of “rich” content. Facebook, in contrast, only shares posts from fan pages with Google, and not posts from regular profiles. Google's SEO Tactic: Encourage Public Sharing
6. Show Google+ Author Profiles in Search Results
The first 5 items on this list represent SEO tactics that anyone can use, but in a way #6 belongs to Google alone. By linking to Google+ profiles in search results, they create an advantage that no other social media service can duplicate. Is Google “cheating” by favoring it’s own property? Some say yes, but on the other hand, is there a more relevant result? To me, it makes more sense to connect my author profile with the website that actually hosts the content, such as my profile on SEOmoz. This demonstrates the power of rich snippets. Since Google introduced author photos in search results, webmasters have scrambled to get their mug included – the idea being that rich snippets of all kinds increase click-through rates. The question is, are we increasing the CTR of our own website, or Google+? Google's SEO Tactic: Creative Rich Snippets
What Can You Do?
Except for #6 above, most of these techniques are available to any online business. Google has found a way to create large amounts of search engine friendly content, and do it at scale. The lack of diversity this creates in Google's search results is troubling to some. Google risks turning into McGoogle, where every result and every page looks the same. With any luck, more companies will adopt strong SEO strategies to raise themselves in search. Now that the adoption of Google+ has hit 62 million users and growing, expect to see far more Google+ in your search results soon.
Google+ may not have membership numbers as strong as Facebook, but it recently had its strongest-month ever and, at least according to one analyst, is on track to reach 400 million users by the end of the year. Experian Hitwise sent out a tweet on Monday that Google’s social networking site experienced a huge traffic jump in December and more than doubled its traffic in just one month. “Google+ total US visits reach more than 49 million in Dec-11, biggest month to date & up 55% compared to Nov-11 ow.ly/i/oT3R,” Experian Hitwise tweeted. Meanwhile, Experian Hitwise tweeted last Friday that U.S. visits for Google+ have grown eight out of the last nine weeks. Although Google+ has declined to comment on its membership numbers, analyst Paul Allen — who is also the founder of Ancestry.com — told the Daily Mail that the site recently surpassed the 62 million members mark. Of that, 25% of the site’s user base signed up in December alone. This growth rate is significant since Facebook didn’t pass 60 million members until nearly four years after its debut. At this rate, Allen said he expects Google+ will reach about 400 million users by the end of 2012. Facebook now boasts more than 800 million active members. It’s now even easier for users to access Google+ thanks to the strong sales of Android devices, with more than 700,000 purchased each day. Google integrates its Android smartphones with Google+. Do you think Google+ membership will pass Facebook in the future? Which site do you prefer?
For big brands, Google+ is probably a good investment — but is Google+ an efficient use of time for small businesses? Google unveiled Google+ brand pages in November, enabling businesses and brands to join its social network. Since then, big brands — including Pepsi, Macy’s and Toyota — have jumped on the Google+ bandwagon, creating yet another hub page for their content-hungry fans. We reached out to our community to better understand how (and if) small businesses are using Google+. We received more than 50 responses detailing the merits and downfalls of using Google’s social network as a small business. Below are some of the top thoughts on the pros and cons of using Google+ as a small business. Read on and add your thoughts in the comments below.
A bulk of the small businesses we spoke with said they feel Google+ is an important social platform because it was developed by Google, one of the Internet’s favorite brands and one of the most influential websites when it comes to site referrals. But small business owners gave a plethora of reasons for being early adopters of the platform. Here are some of the top reasons we heard for using Google+.
1. Get an SEO Boost: Bob Shirilla, director of marketing at Simply Bags, says that his business joined Google+ because he relies on Google search referrals for sales conversions. “Google+ influences search for all the people who have included my business in their circle,” he says. “We have also put a +1 button on each product page. This is a great way to get free promotion from people who like the product to people with similar interests.”
2. Host a Hangout: “Hangouts offer an amazing opportunity for businesses to engage in a highly personal way with clients, customers and industry thought leaders,” says Roger Friedensen, president and CEO of Forge Communications. “Plus, employees in remote locations can hold team meetings to brainstorm with one another from an interface that affords them immediate and easy access to share and collaborate on most of the information materials they might need, such as documents and spreadsheets.”
3. Expand Content Distribution: Phyllis Khare, the social media editorial director of iPhone Life magazine, says that Google+ is a great platform for expanding the publication’s content distribution. “It took us almost a year to get 1,000 Likes on our Facebook Page, and three days on G+ to get that number to Circle us,” she says. “We are gearing up for Hangouts with some of our writers in 2012 to answer iOS questions and a few other fun things with contests and giveaways.”
4. Connect with Early Adopters: If your business falls in the Internet or technology industries, Google+ could be a great place to connect a tech-savvy audience. “The people that are on Google+ already are most likely going to be early adopters of other technologies and marketing channels,” says Jason Pinto, CMO at interlinkONE. “When we look at what defines an ‘ideal customer’ for our products, that criteria is certainly high on our list.”
5. Segment Your Audience: “The obvious benefit of Google+ is that it allows us to share select content with specific audiences,” says Chad Udell, managing director of Float Mobile Learning. Google+ makes it easy for businesses to segment their audiences and share content directly with those certain groups of followers.
6. Use Google+ to Network: David Greenberg, president of Parliament Tutors, says that his business does not have a Google+ page, but that he uses his personal Google+ page to network and gather contact data and research the “personal side” of relevant contacts, such as journalists and potential clients, so that he can better create a connection with them. He adds that the “About” section of a contact’s Google+ profile is usually a great start.
7. Just Explore:Netronic Managing Director Martin Karlowitsch says, “We currently use Google+ for exploratory purposes. It is still a niche platform, but quickly growing and with a platform giant behind it. Knowing the impact that Google has on the way people find relevant information on the web, Google+ soon can become significant by combining social and search. I want to start early using this platform to be prepared when this inflection point arises.”
5 Downfalls of Using Google+
While most of the small business owners we spoke with had a very positive outlook for Google+, we also spoke to a number of skeptics who identified numerous flaws in the social platform. Here are the top five reasons that small business owners gave for limiting their engagement on Google+.
1. Administration is Difficult: “The pages need to be created from an individual’s Google+ account, and you cannot add admins or any other users to manage the account,” says Jason Donaldson, an account executive at Formic Media. “Depending on the size of the business, this may not be an issue. For example, if you only have one or two employees, there probably isn’t an issue accessing the page from a personal Google account. The problem becomes more exaggerated with businesses that don’t have a dedicated social media manager (unlikely with small businesses), because of the need to give out personal account information for users to post on the business page.”
2. Facebook and Twitter Reign: Many of the small businesses we spoke with pointed out that they maintain engaged audiences on Twitter and Facebook, but most of their customers and clients don’t use Google+. So, the platform isn’t much of a priority for their business. In the words of TwiloPR President Chris Heuwetter, “The true value is in Facebook, where we see a nice return on our efforts. Google+ seems like a ghost town [for many small businesses].”
3. Social Dashboards Don’t Integrate Google+ Yet: While more progressive social media dashboards, like Hootsuite, have integrated Google+ into their products, many social dashboard services on the market do not enable users to post to Google+. For businesses that manage their social presences from one central location, the lack of Google+ integration is a huge barrier to Google+ usage.
4. Google Side Projects are Unreliable: James Beswick manages online marketing for a bar in San Antonio called Drink. He looked into creating a Google+ page for the bar, but decided against it, since he’s not certain that the social network will pan out. “Google keeps starting and shutting down products — Buzz, Wave and Hotpot, to name a few — and I’m not entirely convinced the same thing won’t happen with Plus,” he says. “Given the time and cost of engaging followers, I think the effort is better spent on Facebook.”
5. Growth Is Small: Tara Parks, senior marketing administrator at Convergence Networks says that she sees potential in Google+, but that growth has been small for her company. “The biggest drawback to Google+ so far is that it’s hard to grow a fan base, since businesses can only add other businesses to their Circles, and not individuals, the way you can on Twitter (until they add you, that is),” she says. “It will definitely be a lot more fun once more people start using Google+.”
We live in a world of absolutes: Here’s what happened. Even when we look to the future, our predictions are couched in the world’s sometimes difficult realities. It can, to be honest, take all the fun out of guess work. So, once a year I allow myself to go beyond the likely, beyond the possible and deep into the world of the implausible. What follows are my most ridiculous and unlikely predictions. Most are just nuts, but one is, to be honest, all too scarily possible. See if you can guess which prediction I’m talking about.
1. Facebook Buys Digg
Facebook’s 2012 will look a lot like its 2011: More growth, more change. Still, it hasn’t quite broken through on the content curation and voting side of things. With all the frictionless sharing people will be doing, they may no longer think about accumulating “likes.” Digg started using Facebook’s OpenGraph in 2011, which makes it easy to share what you’re reading on Digg to Facebook. As I see it, this is simply the first step on the road to a much deeper relationship. When Facebook buys Digg next year, users will get the ability to “Digg” not only profile pages, but people. That’s right, you could really “Digg” someone on Facebook. It’s so 1976, but also so cool. I foresee another side to the Facebook universe where people, places and things are Dugg on a more generalized basis, but those Diggs bubble up to individual profile pages and appear alongside Likes, Readings, Watching, etc. There is an 85% chance that all of Digg’s existing audience will walk away from the service if this acquisition happens, but I’m not sure most of them will stay with the content curation destination anyway.
2. Scientists and Hollywood Develop New Way to End Movies
3D has pretty much flopped, and it’s getting tougher and tougher to get movie-goers into theaters. Scientists will partner with Hollywood studios to unveil a new technology known as “Fresh Ends.” Using CGI, Hollywood script writers, voice and context recognition and logic algorithms, Fresh Ends technology will generate new endings for some of the world’s most popular films. These slightly rewritten movies will be re-released to theaters — just like the 3D rereleases — and are expected to add 15- to 20% additional box office returns to each film. For now, Fresh Ends only works with movies shot digitally.
3. SOPA Becomes the Law of the land
Myopic congressman and a distracted president take the Stop Online Piracy Act and pass it into law. Designed, at least according to the bill, “To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes,” SOPA has an almost unprecedented chilling effect on the web. Thousands of U.S. sites shut down, other larger ones continue, but are now full of boring pap that could never be misconstrued as content piracy. Content creators of all stripes are so unsure of what will be labeled piracy they struggle to create anything. By the end of 2012, however, an underground Internet (The UnderWebs) arises. It’s full of unfettered communication and content, and slowly but surely, millions of web surfers around the world begin using it instead of the government-policed Internet — a platform that dies a sad, quiet death in 2018.
4. Apple Intros a 5-inch Tablet Phone Hybrid
Sorry, no iPhone 5 or iPad 3. Unable to decide whether it should deliver a 7-inch iPad 3 or a 4.5-inch iPhone 5, Apple comes down squarely in the middle with a giant handheld that, naturally, makes calls and is almost large enough to be a usable tablet. The hidden bonus? It’s also a fully functional HDTV. Apple, however, will remain mum for most of the year on whether or not it plans on actually delivering a larger Apple iTV.
5. Google+ Takes Center Stage
Virtually unchanged for more than a decade, Google’s search page undergoes a subtle, yet important transformation. The search giant places a “+” sign right next to the “Google” Logo. But the change is more than logo-deep. If you hit your own “+” sign on your keyboard before typing in your search query, all results will feature Google+ search results on top. If you hit “+” twice, your search query can be used to launch a new Google+ post. You’ll still have to select which circles you want to share your search query with. Rumors will swirl throughout 2012 that Google wants to rename the entire company “Google+.”
6. Honda Releases Asimo to Consumers
Japanese auto manufacturer Honda shocks the world by unveiling a fully operational, $1,999 Honda Asimo Home Helper Robot. Like the Asimo we’ve seen in product demonstrations and on YouTube, “Home Asimo” can walk, run, jump, make coffee and sandwiches and, as we soon learn, clean toilets. Honda sells a stunning half million units before August, 2012. The most startling news, though, comes when one Home Honda robot in Dearborn, Michigan turns on its family’s computer and signs itself up for Twitter and Facebook. By December, more than 300,000 of the robots have been destroyed or returned.
Join Me On Google Plus i want You in Mine family sagar ganatra
For big brands, Google+ is probably a good investment — but is Google+ an efficient use of time for small businesses? Google unveiled Google+ brand pages in November, enabling businesses and brands to join its social network. Since then, big brands — including Pepsi, Macy’s and Toyota — have jumped on the Google+ bandwagon, creating yet another hub page for their content-hungry fans. We reached out to our community to better understand how (and if) small businesses are using Google+. We received more than 50 responses detailing the merits and downfalls of using Google’s social network as a small business. Below are some of the top thoughts on the pros and cons of using Google+ as a small business. Read on and add your thoughts in the comments below.
A bulk of the small businesses we spoke with said they feel Google+ is an important social platform because it was developed by Google, one of the Internet’s favorite brands and one of the most influential websites when it comes to site referrals. But small business owners gave a plethora of reasons for being early adopters of the platform. Here are some of the top reasons we heard for using Google+.
1. Get an SEO Boost: Bob Shirilla, director of marketing at Simply Bags, says that his business joined Google+ because he relies on Google search referrals for sales conversions. “Google+ influences search for all the people who have included my business in their circle,” he says. “We have also put a +1 button on each product page. This is a great way to get free promotion from people who like the product to people with similar interests.”
2. Host a Hangout: “Hangouts offer an amazing opportunity for businesses to engage in a highly personal way with clients, customers and industry thought leaders,” says Roger Friedensen, president and CEO of Forge Communications. “Plus, employees in remote locations can hold team meetings to brainstorm with one another from an interface that affords them immediate and easy access to share and collaborate on most of the information materials they might need, such as documents and spreadsheets.”
3. Expand Content Distribution: Phyllis Khare, the social media editorial director of iPhone Life magazine, says that Google+ is a great platform for expanding the publication’s content distribution. “It took us almost a year to get 1,000 Likes on our Facebook Page, and three days on G+ to get that number to Circle us,” she says. “We are gearing up for Hangouts with some of our writers in 2012 to answer iOS questions and a few other fun things with contests and giveaways.”
4. Connect with Early Adopters: If your business falls in the Internet or technology industries, Google+ could be a great place to connect a tech-savvy audience. “The people that are on Google+ already are most likely going to be early adopters of other technologies and marketing channels,” says Jason Pinto, CMO at interlinkONE. “When we look at what defines an ‘ideal customer’ for our products, that criteria is certainly high on our list.”
5. Segment Your Audience: “The obvious benefit of Google+ is that it allows us to share select content with specific audiences,” says Chad Udell, managing director of Float Mobile Learning. Google+ makes it easy for businesses to segment their audiences and share content directly with those certain groups of followers.
6. Use Google+ to Network: David Greenberg, president of Parliament Tutors, says that his business does not have a Google+ page, but that he uses his personal Google+ page to network and gather contact data and research the “personal side” of relevant contacts, such as journalists and potential clients, so that he can better create a connection with them. He adds that the “About” section of a contact’s Google+ profile is usually a great start.
7. Just Explore:Netronic Managing Director Martin Karlowitsch says, “We currently use Google+ for exploratory purposes. It is still a niche platform, but quickly growing and with a platform giant behind it. Knowing the impact that Google has on the way people find relevant information on the web, Google+ soon can become significant by combining social and search. I want to start early using this platform to be prepared when this inflection point arises.”
5 Downfalls of Using Google+
While most of the small business owners we spoke with had a very positive outlook for Google+, we also spoke to a number of skeptics who identified numerous flaws in the social platform. Here are the top five reasons that small business owners gave for limiting their engagement on Google+.
1. Administration is Difficult: “The pages need to be created from an individual’s Google+ account, and you cannot add admins or any other users to manage the account,” says Jason Donaldson, an account executive at Formic Media. “Depending on the size of the business, this may not be an issue. For example, if you only have one or two employees, there probably isn’t an issue accessing the page from a personal Google account. The problem becomes more exaggerated with businesses that don’t have a dedicated social media manager (unlikely with small businesses), because of the need to give out personal account information for users to post on the business page.”
2. Facebook and Twitter Reign: Many of the small businesses we spoke with pointed out that they maintain engaged audiences on Twitter and Facebook, but most of their customers and clients don’t use Google+. So, the platform isn’t much of a priority for their business. In the words of TwiloPR President Chris Heuwetter, “The true value is in Facebook, where we see a nice return on our efforts. Google+ seems like a ghost town [for many small businesses].”
3. Social Dashboards Don’t Integrate Google+ Yet: While more progressive social media dashboards, like Hootsuite, have integrated Google+ into their products, many social dashboard services on the market do not enable users to post to Google+. For businesses that manage their social presences from one central location, the lack of Google+ integration is a huge barrier to Google+ usage.
4. Google Side Projects are Unreliable: James Beswick manages online marketing for a bar in San Antonio called Drink. He looked into creating a Google+ page for the bar, but decided against it, since he’s not certain that the social network will pan out. “Google keeps starting and shutting down products — Buzz, Wave and Hotpot, to name a few — and I’m not entirely convinced the same thing won’t happen with Plus,” he says. “Given the time and cost of engaging followers, I think the effort is better spent on Facebook.”
5. Growth Is Small: Tara Parks, senior marketing administrator at Convergence Networks says that she sees potential in Google+, but that growth has been small for her company. “The biggest drawback to Google+ so far is that it’s hard to grow a fan base, since businesses can only add other businesses to their Circles, and not individuals, the way you can on Twitter (until they add you, that is),” she says. “It will definitely be a lot more fun once more people start using Google+.”
We live in a world of absolutes: Here’s what happened. Even when we look to the future, our predictions are couched in the world’s sometimes difficult realities. It can, to be honest, take all the fun out of guess work. So, once a year I allow myself to go beyond the likely, beyond the possible and deep into the world of the implausible. What follows are my most ridiculous and unlikely predictions. Most are just nuts, but one is, to be honest, all too scarily possible. See if you can guess which prediction I’m talking about.
1. Facebook Buys Digg
Facebook’s 2012 will look a lot like its 2011: More growth, more change. Still, it hasn’t quite broken through on the content curation and voting side of things. With all the frictionless sharing people will be doing, they may no longer think about accumulating “likes.” Digg started using Facebook’s OpenGraph in 2011, which makes it easy to share what you’re reading on Digg to Facebook. As I see it, this is simply the first step on the road to a much deeper relationship. When Facebook buys Digg next year, users will get the ability to “Digg” not only profile pages, but people. That’s right, you could really “Digg” someone on Facebook. It’s so 1976, but also so cool. I foresee another side to the Facebook universe where people, places and things are Dugg on a more generalized basis, but those Diggs bubble up to individual profile pages and appear alongside Likes, Readings, Watching, etc. There is an 85% chance that all of Digg’s existing audience will walk away from the service if this acquisition happens, but I’m not sure most of them will stay with the content curation destination anyway.
2. Scientists and Hollywood Develop New Way to End Movies
3D has pretty much flopped, and it’s getting tougher and tougher to get movie-goers into theaters. Scientists will partner with Hollywood studios to unveil a new technology known as “Fresh Ends.” Using CGI, Hollywood script writers, voice and context recognition and logic algorithms, Fresh Ends technology will generate new endings for some of the world’s most popular films. These slightly rewritten movies will be re-released to theaters — just like the 3D rereleases — and are expected to add 15- to 20% additional box office returns to each film. For now, Fresh Ends only works with movies shot digitally.
3. SOPA Becomes the Law of the land
Myopic congressman and a distracted president take the Stop Online Piracy Act and pass it into law. Designed, at least according to the bill, “To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes,” SOPA has an almost unprecedented chilling effect on the web. Thousands of U.S. sites shut down, other larger ones continue, but are now full of boring pap that could never be misconstrued as content piracy. Content creators of all stripes are so unsure of what will be labeled piracy they struggle to create anything. By the end of 2012, however, an underground Internet (The UnderWebs) arises. It’s full of unfettered communication and content, and slowly but surely, millions of web surfers around the world begin using it instead of the government-policed Internet — a platform that dies a sad, quiet death in 2018.
4. Apple Intros a 5-inch Tablet Phone Hybrid
Sorry, no iPhone 5 or iPad 3. Unable to decide whether it should deliver a 7-inch iPad 3 or a 4.5-inch iPhone 5, Apple comes down squarely in the middle with a giant handheld that, naturally, makes calls and is almost large enough to be a usable tablet. The hidden bonus? It’s also a fully functional HDTV. Apple, however, will remain mum for most of the year on whether or not it plans on actually delivering a larger Apple iTV.
5. Google+ Takes Center Stage
Virtually unchanged for more than a decade, Google’s search page undergoes a subtle, yet important transformation. The search giant places a “+” sign right next to the “Google” Logo. But the change is more than logo-deep. If you hit your own “+” sign on your keyboard before typing in your search query, all results will feature Google+ search results on top. If you hit “+” twice, your search query can be used to launch a new Google+ post. You’ll still have to select which circles you want to share your search query with. Rumors will swirl throughout 2012 that Google wants to rename the entire company “Google+.”
6. Honda Releases Asimo to Consumers
Japanese auto manufacturer Honda shocks the world by unveiling a fully operational, $1,999 Honda Asimo Home Helper Robot. Like the Asimo we’ve seen in product demonstrations and on YouTube, “Home Asimo” can walk, run, jump, make coffee and sandwiches and, as we soon learn, clean toilets. Honda sells a stunning half million units before August, 2012. The most startling news, though, comes when one Home Honda robot in Dearborn, Michigan turns on its family’s computer and signs itself up for Twitter and Facebook. By December, more than 300,000 of the robots have been destroyed or returned.
Join Me On Google Plus i want You in Mine family sagar ganatra
If you use Gmail, Google Reader, Google+, Google Search, Google Maps — indeed, just about any Google product — you’ve likely become familiar with that black strip across the top of the screen with links to the company’s other services. Google introduced it back in June. Opinions have varied ever since, but many of us have gone with: what on Earth is that ugly thing? Wonder no longer, because the black bar is going away. In a blog post Wednesday, Google announced it would be replaced with a pop-up that appears when you mouse over the Google logo. There will also be a smaller, less obtrusive light grey bar dominated by a search box. “Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo,” writes technical lead Eddie Kessler — whose Google profile identifies him as a “cat herder” — in an official announcement blog post. “We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.”
If you use Gmail, Google Reader, Google+, Google Search, Google Maps — indeed, just about any Google product — you’ve likely become familiar with that black strip across the top of the screen with links to the company’s other services. Google introduced it back in June. Opinions have varied ever since, but many of us have gone with: what on Earth is that ugly thing? Wonder no longer, because the black bar is going away. In a blog post Wednesday, Google announced it would be replaced with a pop-up that appears when you mouse over the Google logo. There will also be a smaller, less obtrusive light grey bar dominated by a search box. “Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo,” writes technical lead Eddie Kessler — whose Google profile identifies him as a “cat herder” — in an official announcement blog post. “We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.”
…or be circled back, get friend requests accepted, etc. While this isn’t a completely foolproof guide, just what I’ve picked up from interacting with others on social networking sites, doing these things will make it less likely you’re going to be dismissed as a spammer or someone who follows (circles/friends/etc.) everyone you see in the hopes of a small percentage following back. This guide can also be handy in obtaining followers in general.
Fill out your biography
Most social networking sites have a place for you to write about yourselves. Please fill this out. Be clear what your interests are, which should dictate who you follow and who is more likely to follow back. Google+ has a little tagline beneath your name you can use to list what you do. For example, my tagline is just “Writer, blogger, student”. That’s it. Yet it describes my interests. Also, use the biography area allowed to describe yourself further, making your interests clear. Google+ also has a section allowing you to link to other profiles/websites of yours. Use it. Here’s my Google+ profile:
I clearly describe my interests in greater detail and give a little information about me. I also have included links to other profiles to help people find me in other places. I have a list of recommended links, but you don’t need to do that if you don’t want to. You can add more personal information if you want to, as long as it’s still clear why people should want to interact with you. Here’s my Twitter profile information, which you have to write in 160 characters or less. Doable? Yes.
Blogger and aspiring writer, loves YA fantasy and paranormal romance, just finished high school. Chocolate addict.
This still covers my main interest, writing, and I also put a link to this website beneath it. The point of the profile is to prove you’re a real person and can offer something of interest to the people looking to follow you. I don’t have a profile on Facebook open to people I don’t know personally, but you can fill out your “about me” section in a similar manner to Google+ if you want to network using the site.
Use a real photo of you
While people might follow you back if you have your pet as your profile picture, it can be slightly disconcerting. It’s best if you have a close-up so people can see your face well and make sure the image isn’t of poor quality. If you’re looking to network online, you’re better off showing your real face. Some people do make it work with a cartoon image or the like, but I’m definitely more wary of following them. Also, don’t leave the default image given to you by the website. The Twitter “egg” image is an immediate red flag in particular, as the website is riddled with spammers.
Share publicly and regularly
If you want to network online, people need to be able to see what you’re sharing before they decide you’re worth following back. If your profile and timeline or stream are hidden, your chances of getting people following you back are low, unless you have already met your potential followers. You don’t have to share everything publicly, but you have to give some indication of what you’re all about. Also, you want to share something on a regular basis so it doesn’t look like you’ve abandoned your account. If you’re busy, even a weekly check-in is better than nothing at all. I’ve been guilty of abandoning my accounts for sometimes months at a time, and it has not done me any favours, I assure you.
Share well
If you’re funny, be funny. If you’re not, don’t try to be. Use what you’re good at. Sharing interesting links or observations about something you find interesting will get you followers. I try to link to relevant blog posts every so often and retweet often. I also create my own content, either directly on the website or through this blog.
Be open-minded
It’s okay to be opinionated (I certainly am) but if you slam another person’s beliefs, you are going to lose a lot of potential followers. I touched on this in my previous post in the section about anti-traditional publishing rants. Social networking can be a great place for intelligent debate, as I’ve found on Google+ in particular. Sometimes you might need to tone down your views a little bit so you don’t alienate people you might otherwise get along well with. For example, while I’m strongly for the continuation of traditional publishing and read primarily traditionally published authors, I’m willing to give self-published authors a chance and follow a lot of them on Google+ and Twitter. They might not share all my beliefs, but they can be a valuable source of information about writing. Most of them are also very friendly, save for the handful of kooks proclaiming the death of traditional publishing. Then again, you get some kooks on the traditionally published side as well. I’ve also had a few problems with, shall we say, rude people. I tend to rant a lot about the portrayal of Young Adult fiction in the eyes of those who neither write nor read it. Someone tweeted me that YA was just a “marketing excuse” to sell mature themes to “children”. As both a reader of YA and a teenager who just got called a child (for the love of God, do not call teenagers children if you want to get out alive), I found this quite insulting. If you know someone holds a particular view, you’re better off not attempting to make them see “the error of their ways”. While I’m happy to engage in debate with another open-minded individual, I do not take kindly to people slamming my beliefs, and nor does anyone else. I suppose the message to take away from this section is “play nice with others”.
Interact with other users
Whether it’s through the @ tweeting or through comments on Facebook or Google+, don’t be afraid to jump into conversations you feel you can contribute to. If you uphold the previous point, you may win yourself some new followers or, at least, the respect of those around you. However, you shouldn’t do this just to get followers. It should be something you do willingly. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can observe conversations between the people you follow at first until you get the hang of things. I used to be extremely shy on the internet, but not so much anymore. I observed and dipped my toe in before plunging headfirst into conversation. It’s amazing the people you can meet online if you take the time to say hello. When it comes to social networking, it’s important to be kind, courteous and open-minded but still retain your sense of self. You need to give fellow users a reason to follow back, something unique and interesting. Give them you.
…or be circled back, get friend requests accepted, etc. While this isn’t a completely foolproof guide, just what I’ve picked up from interacting with others on social networking sites, doing these things will make it less likely you’re going to be dismissed as a spammer or someone who follows (circles/friends/etc.) everyone you see in the hopes of a small percentage following back. This guide can also be handy in obtaining followers in general.
Fill out your biography
Most social networking sites have a place for you to write about yourselves. Please fill this out. Be clear what your interests are, which should dictate who you follow and who is more likely to follow back. Google+ has a little tagline beneath your name you can use to list what you do. For example, my tagline is just “Writer, blogger, student”. That’s it. Yet it describes my interests. Also, use the biography area allowed to describe yourself further, making your interests clear. Google+ also has a section allowing you to link to other profiles/websites of yours. Use it. Here’s my Google+ profile:
I clearly describe my interests in greater detail and give a little information about me. I also have included links to other profiles to help people find me in other places. I have a list of recommended links, but you don’t need to do that if you don’t want to. You can add more personal information if you want to, as long as it’s still clear why people should want to interact with you. Here’s my Twitter profile information, which you have to write in 160 characters or less. Doable? Yes.
Blogger and aspiring writer, loves YA fantasy and paranormal romance, just finished high school. Chocolate addict.
This still covers my main interest, writing, and I also put a link to this website beneath it. The point of the profile is to prove you’re a real person and can offer something of interest to the people looking to follow you. I don’t have a profile on Facebook open to people I don’t know personally, but you can fill out your “about me” section in a similar manner to Google+ if you want to network using the site.
Use a real photo of you
While people might follow you back if you have your pet as your profile picture, it can be slightly disconcerting. It’s best if you have a close-up so people can see your face well and make sure the image isn’t of poor quality. If you’re looking to network online, you’re better off showing your real face. Some people do make it work with a cartoon image or the like, but I’m definitely more wary of following them. Also, don’t leave the default image given to you by the website. The Twitter “egg” image is an immediate red flag in particular, as the website is riddled with spammers.
Share publicly and regularly
If you want to network online, people need to be able to see what you’re sharing before they decide you’re worth following back. If your profile and timeline or stream are hidden, your chances of getting people following you back are low, unless you have already met your potential followers. You don’t have to share everything publicly, but you have to give some indication of what you’re all about. Also, you want to share something on a regular basis so it doesn’t look like you’ve abandoned your account. If you’re busy, even a weekly check-in is better than nothing at all. I’ve been guilty of abandoning my accounts for sometimes months at a time, and it has not done me any favours, I assure you.
Share well
If you’re funny, be funny. If you’re not, don’t try to be. Use what you’re good at. Sharing interesting links or observations about something you find interesting will get you followers. I try to link to relevant blog posts every so often and retweet often. I also create my own content, either directly on the website or through this blog.
Be open-minded
It’s okay to be opinionated (I certainly am) but if you slam another person’s beliefs, you are going to lose a lot of potential followers. I touched on this in my previous post in the section about anti-traditional publishing rants. Social networking can be a great place for intelligent debate, as I’ve found on Google+ in particular. Sometimes you might need to tone down your views a little bit so you don’t alienate people you might otherwise get along well with. For example, while I’m strongly for the continuation of traditional publishing and read primarily traditionally published authors, I’m willing to give self-published authors a chance and follow a lot of them on Google+ and Twitter. They might not share all my beliefs, but they can be a valuable source of information about writing. Most of them are also very friendly, save for the handful of kooks proclaiming the death of traditional publishing. Then again, you get some kooks on the traditionally published side as well. I’ve also had a few problems with, shall we say, rude people. I tend to rant a lot about the portrayal of Young Adult fiction in the eyes of those who neither write nor read it. Someone tweeted me that YA was just a “marketing excuse” to sell mature themes to “children”. As both a reader of YA and a teenager who just got called a child (for the love of God, do not call teenagers children if you want to get out alive), I found this quite insulting. If you know someone holds a particular view, you’re better off not attempting to make them see “the error of their ways”. While I’m happy to engage in debate with another open-minded individual, I do not take kindly to people slamming my beliefs, and nor does anyone else. I suppose the message to take away from this section is “play nice with others”.
Interact with other users
Whether it’s through the @ tweeting or through comments on Facebook or Google+, don’t be afraid to jump into conversations you feel you can contribute to. If you uphold the previous point, you may win yourself some new followers or, at least, the respect of those around you. However, you shouldn’t do this just to get followers. It should be something you do willingly. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can observe conversations between the people you follow at first until you get the hang of things. I used to be extremely shy on the internet, but not so much anymore. I observed and dipped my toe in before plunging headfirst into conversation. It’s amazing the people you can meet online if you take the time to say hello. When it comes to social networking, it’s important to be kind, courteous and open-minded but still retain your sense of self. You need to give fellow users a reason to follow back, something unique and interesting. Give them you.
The social networking war has been going on from quite some time now and nobody is sure on which side to choose. There’s Facebook, Twitter and now Google Plus. Recently, Google opened the doors to their social networking website, Google Plus, to everyone and let anyone above the age of 13 to join. Since, the site is new and has some extra features that you wouldn’t find on Facebook, such as Hangouts and Circles, a lot many people have already signed up with Google’s new toy.
With a new service, comes new tips and tricks, so here I am, sharing with all you new users some useful and basic Google Plus Tips and Tricks. If you haven’t joined this social network yet and want to try it out, then you can do so by visiting plus.google.com. Once you’re done signing up, you could use the following tips and tricks to make your social networking experience better.
Import all your Facebook Data to Google Plus
When I joined Google+, first thing in my mind was “Ahh! I have to start everything from scratch”. How about I can quickly import stuff from my Facebook account into Google+. So the very first thing I did, was to import my Facebook friends to Google+. You can use the Google Chrome extension Facebook Friend Exporter to get everybody on this side too. To transfer your photos you can use Move your Photos extension for Chrome and Photo Importer if you’re on Firefox. Alas! You’ve now got your friends and photos on Google plus.
Use @ or + to mention another User
This would be one of the basic things that you’d look for when it comes to sharing a post with someone or just updating your status. Tagging someone, we’ve been doing it from a long time on Facebook. It’s somewhat similar on Google plus too. To tag a friend who’s in your circle, you can use the ‘@’ or ‘+’ symbol followed by the starting letter or first name of the friend. To mention a user that you’re not friends or isn’t in your circle, you can use the ‘+’ symbol followed by the user Id, which can be found on the address bar when you visit the person’s profile.
It would look something like this; https://plus.google.com/117420368760274729369. “117420368760274729369″ is the user id.
Drag-&-Drop Photos and Edit them too
If you want to add photos to the post that you are sharing, then all you need to do is drag and drop them to the dialog box. After you’ve added the photos, you can just as easily edit them and also apply certain effects. All of that is built into the Google plus photo viewer. When you click on a photo, you’ll see an Actions button, selecting which will reveal the Edit photo option.
Add basic Formatting to Text
You can add basic formatting such as make the text bold, italics or add strike-throughs using symbols like ‘*’, ‘_’ and ‘-’ . Use ‘*’ before and after the text to make it bold, use ‘_’ before and after the text to make it italic and ‘-’ for the strike-through effect.
Share with Circles/Single User and Disable or Mute Comments.
This is one of the coolest features available for users. Whenever you post an update or share something, you can always select whom you want to share it with. You can select all specific Circles or you can just select one single user. After you’ve posted something, you can also delete the post or edit it using the options button next to it. You can also disable comments on a post if you don’t want to get notified with e-mails. There’ also an option to mute a post, which means that you’ll get comments, but won’t be notified by e-mail. These are some of the basic tips and tricks that you should try after joining Google plus. There are many more, but you’ll get to know them once you’re familiar with all of the above. So, have you joined Google plus yet?
The social networking war has been going on from quite some time now and nobody is sure on which side to choose. There’s Facebook, Twitter and now Google Plus. Recently, Google opened the doors to their social networking website, Google Plus, to everyone and let anyone above the age of 13 to join. Since, the site is new and has some extra features that you wouldn’t find on Facebook, such as Hangouts and Circles, a lot many people have already signed up with Google’s new toy.
With a new service, comes new tips and tricks, so here I am, sharing with all you new users some useful and basic Google Plus Tips and Tricks. If you haven’t joined this social network yet and want to try it out, then you can do so by visiting plus.google.com. Once you’re done signing up, you could use the following tips and tricks to make your social networking experience better.
Import all your Facebook Data to Google Plus
When I joined Google+, first thing in my mind was “Ahh! I have to start everything from scratch”. How about I can quickly import stuff from my Facebook account into Google+. So the very first thing I did, was to import my Facebook friends to Google+. You can use the Google Chrome extension Facebook Friend Exporter to get everybody on this side too. To transfer your photos you can use Move your Photos extension for Chrome and Photo Importer if you’re on Firefox. Alas! You’ve now got your friends and photos on Google plus.
Use @ or + to mention another User
This would be one of the basic things that you’d look for when it comes to sharing a post with someone or just updating your status. Tagging someone, we’ve been doing it from a long time on Facebook. It’s somewhat similar on Google plus too. To tag a friend who’s in your circle, you can use the ‘@’ or ‘+’ symbol followed by the starting letter or first name of the friend. To mention a user that you’re not friends or isn’t in your circle, you can use the ‘+’ symbol followed by the user Id, which can be found on the address bar when you visit the person’s profile.
It would look something like this; https://plus.google.com/117420368760274729369. “117420368760274729369″ is the user id.
Drag-&-Drop Photos and Edit them too
If you want to add photos to the post that you are sharing, then all you need to do is drag and drop them to the dialog box. After you’ve added the photos, you can just as easily edit them and also apply certain effects. All of that is built into the Google plus photo viewer. When you click on a photo, you’ll see an Actions button, selecting which will reveal the Edit photo option.
Add basic Formatting to Text
You can add basic formatting such as make the text bold, italics or add strike-throughs using symbols like ‘*’, ‘_’ and ‘-’ . Use ‘*’ before and after the text to make it bold, use ‘_’ before and after the text to make it italic and ‘-’ for the strike-through effect.
Share with Circles/Single User and Disable or Mute Comments.
This is one of the coolest features available for users. Whenever you post an update or share something, you can always select whom you want to share it with. You can select all specific Circles or you can just select one single user. After you’ve posted something, you can also delete the post or edit it using the options button next to it. You can also disable comments on a post if you don’t want to get notified with e-mails. There’ also an option to mute a post, which means that you’ll get comments, but won’t be notified by e-mail. These are some of the basic tips and tricks that you should try after joining Google plus. There are many more, but you’ll get to know them once you’re familiar with all of the above. So, have you joined Google plus yet?
