Google’s Search Plus Your World

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 11, 2012

It seems as if Google’s either upping the bar or meddling in where people aren’t ready to go yet; I’m not quite sure yet.I will say this; no one can say they’re just sitting around waiting for things to happen.

Google has added something to search that they’re calling Search Plus Your World. You might have to enlarge the image to the side to see the example I put up but in essence, if you do a search for something now it will first show you how many people you know have G+’d it (yes, I’ve created a new word) and allow you to check out those recommendations first before going on with whatever it is you originally wanted to do.

It’s kind of freaky when you notice it, and if you haven’t noticed it then it means you probably don’t have a Google+ account or aren’t signed into your Google account, which I always am. But this is the next stage, their version of Facebook’s “Like” system, only on search. The general idea is that you’ll trust it more if people you’re connected with have recommended it; not a bad idea actually.

This is where you now get to think about some of the people you’ve connected with on G+ or other places because some people connect with almost everyone without really knowing who those people are. If that’s the case, you could be seeing this all over and trying to remember just who that person is that’s recommending something, and kind of co-opting your browser with their recommendation.

Right now I can’t think of a really bad thing to gripe about, so I thought I’d throw it out there to see what you think, if you can see it.

Tags: Google, Search Plus Your World

16 Comments »

Southpaw:

Weird. That Google! I don’t have a plus account. I’m having a hard time seeing the benefit. I’m logged into Google all the time too but didn’t see this feature. I’m not too sure I’m missing anything.
Southpaw recently posted…Welcome to my New Home on the Web

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Southpaw, I’m not sure if you’re missing anything or not. So far it seems people either love it or hate it, so I’m one of the few in the middle that hasn’t quite decided yet. It is interesting though.

January 11th, 2012 | 4:16 PM

Doug Gene:

Thanks for sharing this, Mitchell. I hadn’t heard of this prior. Looks like I’ll have to check it out!
Doug Gene recently posted…Rocky Mountain Trail Coupon Code and Review

January 11th, 2012 | 7:18 PM

Carl:

In one of my previous comments I wrote that Google plus haven’t crack the system yet, but definitely this is positive sign that Google is taking control over social networking, trying to punch G+ everywhere you look – search, ads and websites. Actually recently I am having some troubles with Facebook, everyday getting message related to invites and I haven’t invite anybody in more than 5 months. I guess many websites are abusing their API and sneak into user contacts, especially those that use Facebook connect for login.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 9:41 AM

Carl, I think if you’re not hiding your name and if you’re anywhere active on Facebook that people can ask to be added to your list. That and their subscribe process, although I think I turned that off because it just seemed a bit creepy to me.

Carl Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 8:45 PM

Actually not, it is displaying only people in your circle that have shared pages, or write on something on their blogs. As well, there is no reason to accept everybody, you can always reject the request or not reply at all.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 9:32 PM

Not quite Carl. When I ran tests it was showing me people I don’t have in any of my circles, but they probably have me in theirs. And it also shows people who have plussed (there’s that word again) posts that may not be in my circle or me in theirs. Still, the knowledge that we can turn it off is comforting, although as I said in a comment to someone else why wouldn’t I just stop giving anyone a +1 to make sure I didn’t show up anywhere?

Oh yeah, as a further test I found that it shows my face and my name as sharing content I’ve written in other places that don’t have a plus anywhere around it, and that was weird as well.

January 11th, 2012 | 8:26 PM

Brian:

Loved this blog post for two reasons. One, I’m falling asleep and wanted to still get some blog posts read tonight. To my surprise, I could just click listen. Great voice there : ) – I learned something too. Just went to Google and hid the personal results. I don’t like it. I want what I’m used to, and that’s all. I could care less what people I know like. If I wanted that, I’d go over to facebook.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 9:43 AM

Brian, I never even thought about hiding personal results. I probably won’t do it though because if I wanted to be hidden I’d never “+” anything to begin with I figure. Still, it’s nice to have the option.

January 12th, 2012 | 2:05 AM

Peter Davies:

Yet another piece of the puzzle of the search engine/social media ‘big brother I’m watching you’ – I wonder how many government agencies have or are thinking of forming alliances with these giants?
Peter Davies recently posted…Setting Your New Years Resolution

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 9:45 AM

Peter, I don’t think government has to worry because they can pretty much move in and get whatever information they need with a subpoena at a moment’s notice. You called it though, overall lots of social media outlets really are becoming more “big brother”, making us come out to play and give up our info if we want to participate in any fashion.

January 12th, 2012 | 3:33 AM

TSO:

I’m not too happy with this Google+ thing. I have a local niche website that I worked years to get to the top of the first page on Google. I hear that these +’s will help with your ranking. This could mean as the little guy I’ll have to start all over trying to build myself back up.
TSO recently posted…Priority One

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 9:29 PM

Maybe, maybe not. If people are plussing your site (another weird word) it can’t hurt. But it’ll be interesting to see if it changes how people SEO their websites.

January 12th, 2012 | 5:07 PM

Amanda@BuySellWordPress:

This is an excellent feature, I have already checked it out) And that’s really great to see the pages, that some of my friends have already liked. So it gives me confidence that this is a good page
Amanda recently posted…WordPress Themes

January 13th, 2012 | 7:23 AM

Olawale Daniel:

Hi Mitchel,

The way I see this development, I could sense some benefits there and also, the opposite like what you have just said. Let’s say you are connected with someone engaging in some bad thing online, chances are that you might get suggestions relating to what that person recommends.

And the good thing there is that, if you are connected with lots of people on Google+ your friends will get most of your recent posts on their computer screen all the time they search for information that is related to your niche.

Thanks for your guide and it really helps
Olawale Daniel recently posted…Windows Phone 8 Leaked

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
February 8th, 2012 at 12:09 AM

No problem Olawale. This many weeks into it I still don’t have much of an opinion one way or another, but what I have done from time to time is to check out the stream for people I’m supposedly connected to in some fashion just to see the kinds of links that pop up. Based on what Google has said it should do for us, I’m not really impressed.

February 6th, 2012 | 9:29 PM

If you like this post, why not donate to the cause? :-)

Before you leave a reply; please see the comment policy if this is your first visit. This blog doesn't accept keyword names. I need a real first name or a legitimate nickname that you're known for. If your name has more than 3 words or the email address begins with "info", the comment automatically goes to the spam filter; same if there are any links in the comment. If your comment goes to spam for any of these reasons, or any other reason listed in this post, it's probably never showing up on the blog (I do forgive the link issue if you've commented on the blog previously). If it goes there for any other reason (and I know some do), I'll pull it out as I don't intentionally moderate any comments on this blog.

One last thing; if your link is an affiliate link or goes back to a strange website or webpage I don't like, if I keep your comment I'll remove your link. That's why I have CommentLuv for blogs; if you have a legitimate business just leave that link & no sub-links. Trust me, it's best to read the comment policy if you don't get it, or never see your comments showing up here.

I'm Just Sharing