Google Social Circle

I spent a lot of time this weekend writing a marketing plan for a client. In doing so, I was searching for various resources and spending some quality time with Google. After a while, I noticed some search results at the bottom of the first page that said:

Results from people in your social circle for search term – BETA – My social circle – My social content

What appeared in those results were blog posts from people I follow on Twitter. When I clicked on the link for My social circle I was given a page that described my network of connections that Google used to identify relevant social search results.

What is Google Social Search?

In early January, Google went beta to English searchers with social search. It uses your Google Profile to establish your online social circle and display publicly-available content from these folks to provide a more personalized experience in your search results.

When I did a Google search for Google Social Search, I got two results: a blog post from Jason Falls and a tweet from Paul Chaney. Both were recent and relevant to my search and because I “know” these guys from their blogs and Twitter, the content and their perspectives on this topic will carry more weight than someone who I haven’t met through my social networks. Read more on Google Social Circle…

SEO Companies – Truth or Dare

I got a call from yet another SEO company trying to sell one of my clients services that will get them first page rankings in Google. Now, I’ll never call myself an expert, but I do know a thing or two about SEO. But the first rule is that there are no guarantees that anyone, regardless of how “expert” they are, can get your site on the first page of Google. There are too many factors, many of which are unknown except to Google themselves. Plus it also depends on how competitive your industry is, how long your site has been around and the quality of the inbound links you have to your site.
Read more on SEO Companies – Truth or Dare…