Google Social Search Goes Live – What Does That Mean to You and to Social Media?

The Social Media world continues to turn (at dizzying speed).
It’s only been days since the announcement of deals between Twitter and Microsoft’s Bing, and then Google. Now Google’s newest search option, “social search” has gone live.

Although in “experimental” status, the new Google Social Search is available to users who choose to use the service (look in ‘experimental’).

The “new results” show up at the bottom of the search page and include posts made by those in your social circle with relevant content. If you use the “options” feature of Google (which I often do in order to select ‘recent results’) a new social option has appeared there as well offering only those results from your social circle. It is unknown, yet likely that these results will ultimately be assimilated into the search results as Google deems them to be of greater value to users.

Where is the data coming from? Google is pulling this data from your public networks such as twitter and friendfeed, photo and video sharing sites where you have posted public information, as well as your Google accounts and Google profile. How does Google know about all of your other accounts? Well, some are connected to your Google account, such as youtube, etc. Others such as your blogs, etc. are discovered through your Google profile.

As you can see in the photo above, my blogs, social networks, etc. are listed here. This is where Google accesses much of this content.

Currently I am not finding a lot of ‘social results’. In fact, many are mine! I’m sure that this will evolve over time. Here is an example of search results returned when I used the “options” feature and selected “social”.

Now, what does all of this mean to you? It’s all in how you look at it! For some, it will seem ‘creepy’, for others, it’s an opportunity.
I already prefer to find and choose businesses, services, etc from friends and use facebook and twitter frequently to do that. So this is exciting to me! Why would I want to go through the listings of sites that have simply been around longer and been ‘clicked on more’ (read: old), or those who simply bought and paid for placement, when I can go to sites and blogs that my friends have posted or like?

As a business owner, this is “HUGE”!  This gives small business owners and entrepreneurs the opportunity to be even more “find-able” than ever before! Provided that they are blogging, reading, commenting, posting and using social media!

For all of us, it is a reminder that although “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”, the same does NOT hold true for the internet! If you post it, it will be found! (I say, don’t post dumb stuff anyway and it won’t matter!)

Some will say that this is horrible and scary, and so on. The truth is, the internet exists, and it’s not going away. The truth is, even if you avoid the internet like the plague, someone else can talk about you online. As Sue Scheff tells in her book Google Bomb, it is frighteningly simple for someone to ruin your reputation with just a few clicks. The irony (as I see it) is that if you are actively engaged online, and posting valuable content, and are present, then you get the opportunity to “fill that space”. If you have content there, and you are engaging with others, and creating the presence that YOU want to have, then if someone comes along, they can’t have the same impact.

For example, I recently did a Google search on someone a friend was going to go into business with. He is a multi-gazillionaire who has bought and sold lots of companies, etc. He is NOT however very active online apparently (and neither are “his people”). Like most big successful business owners, there are people out there with an axe to grind against him. The problem is, he isn’t putting anything out there to the contrary. As a result, when I search all I get is how terrible, crooked, etc. he is. I don’t know if he is or isn’t, I just know that there isn’t anything there to dispute it. Is that fair? Maybe not…maybe so? Is it fair that people can say whatever they want to whether it’s true or not? No, I don’t think that is fair. However, what is fair is that unless you just refuse, or don’t have time, or don’t want to learn, or are too lazy or too whatever, you CAN post information too. The playing field is now level! You don’t have to be a journalist, or famous, or rich, or anything else.

As with all things, there are many sides to every story! What are your thoughts about this?