Here’s a smart tool from google that most people don’t know about, not because it’s hidden, they simply don’t know how to use it effectively. Google calls it social search. This is how it works. Google collates everything your network friends have posted or published on blogs or social networks and makes it available to you in your own customised search page. In today’s video google introduces the idea of social search.
You start by creating a google profile. This is easy and is to your benefit for many reasons, not least of which is to give you much better visibility to your network community and friends. Sign-up, or sign-in if you have a google account already, upload a photo and add your details. Then, add links to twitter, blogger and all of your social networking sites. Leave things to simmer for a few weeks. This gives google chance to collect useful data.
Google then finds all of the stuff your network friends are sharing publicly online. If you click my social circle in your search results you will see a full list of connections. But here’s the interesting bit. These are not just your direct connections, but their network friends too. So, you now have easy access to an extended network of friends. If you are in business and have a network of friends, prospects, customers and people interested in you, what a great way to increase your influence and attract more business.
And here’s another neat tool. Google have acquired Ardvark for $50m. Ardvark is a new kind of search engine for when you want a person to answer your question. What a great idea. Send a question to ardvark. They find the perfect person to answer it. You get a response in minutes. Techcrunch say, as of October last, ardvark had 90,000 users with an average query volume of 3,000 questions a day. New ideas like this are what makes the internet grow and prosper.
The innovation of social search is only just beginning.
