Google’s latest step in personalised search was launched earlier this month. Labelled as ‘Your World’ when you are logged into your Google+ account any searches you do will incorporate results from people who are in your Google+ connections. Google has been developing social search for the last couple of years and included Twitter results at one stage – when they were still on speaking terms… Twitter had a snipe at Google when ‘Your World’ launched and described it as, ‘a bad day for the Internet’. No love lost there then!
With ‘Your World’, Google is expanding the idea that they have always espoused which is that information and recommendations from people we know are much more trusted than those that come from less well known or unknown sources. Say you were looking for a vacation and you were using ‘Your World’ in your search results. Included in your search results would be experiences and photos of that place you were considering for a vacation from people who are included in your Google+ circles – that seems pretty helpful really.
Provided Google can get the balance right between results which are generated by people we know and those sources we don’t, I can see it being a useful tool. It can also be turned off at any time, at least for the moment. From your company web site point of view and attracting search visitors from Google it emphasises the importance of getting your company Google+ account up and running and making it part of your social media strategy. We don’t expect a great deal of traffic from this change to our clients’ sites but it will be another way of promoting your site so do keep an eye on ‘Your World’!
