Hello, I'm interrupting this regularly scheduled Daily Gold Nugget to bring you some direct reporting from the construction site.
Normally our Daily Nuggets are written from a compilation of data we've either measured or had direct experience with. Personally, I don't like to feed into the noise of so many SEO professionals that say one thing or another about SEO and you never know who's right. Thankfully, my team specializes in jewelry SEO and all our research data is specific to that sector.
Today, and maybe for a few days this week, I'd like to talk to you directly about Google+. First, let's get you up to speed on the nomenclature since I might refer to it as "Google Plus," "G+" and even "GP."
I finally got an invite to Google+ on Friday, July 8, 2011 and dove right in. I sent out emails to all of my customers on Saturday morning and was a little surprised by the majority of questions back asking "What's Google+?"
As a twist of normal events, I'm taking over the Nuggets to directly explain what is happening in the Social Media world, because come July 31, 2011 when Google+ is opened up to the world we will see some huge changes.
First, you should know that Google claims that Google Plus is "not" a social network, but rather a project that will unify all the existing Google features through an easy-to-use single interface.
If you think about it, Google already has many individual features that have further reach than any other single social network. What would happen if they gave us the ability to easily share information from one Google feature to a friend in another Google feature?
So we have the "Google+ Project" as a way to unify Google all together. However, they've not exactly said what they will be unifying together immediately, but there are several serious clues, namely the new black and red user interface that we see on some Google features but not others.
Many Google features are now in mainstream everyday life: Android Phones, Maps, Picasa Photos, Gmail, YouTube, and Blogger are the things that most consumers use. How many of those do you use?
Then we have the Google products that are intended more for businesses: Analytics, AdWords, AdSense, Places, Merchant Center, Checkout, Voice, and Webmaster Tools. How many of those do you use?
Earlier this year Google set out to become more social for fear that Facebook was going to crash their mighty ship against the rocks during the major social media storm that is brewing. Actually, they hung a painting on the wall in their Googleplex headquarters that reflected this exact sentiment. See the painting here: http://read.bi/qbnw0A
Here's the first cool feature I honed in on... We now have the ability to snap a day's worth of pics and videos from our phones and have them automatically uploaded to GP and Picasa. Later in the day, we can go back to organize and publish them, or delete them if we don't want them online.
The beauty of this feature is that you're not doing anything different during the day. No need to tell your friends or family "Wait a minute while I take this pic and post it to Facebook right now." And there's no immediate disappointment when your Facebook App dies during the photo upload.
I'm going to stop here today because that's enough of an introduction that Google+ simply exists, and that our online future looks to be going in a new direction.
For now, if you would like an invite to Google+ please comment to this post and I will send you one if they are still available. You might not understand what's happening when you get inside, but I'll help you over the next few days.
Thanks for reading,
Matthew Perosi
Founder
Jeweler Website Advisory Group
