Google+ Posts and Search Results | The Digital Clicks Blog
News of a new Google search feature arrived this week: link annotation integration. With this feature, users will be met with annotated link results when they search, but only if a friend has posted the link and a relevant message publicly on Google+. This new addition to Google’s social search provides a recommendation function not unlike the +1 button, as these recommendations lend prominence to friend-endorsed websites. This feature is more elaborate though, as instead of simply conveying support (as a +1 does), it provides a personalised recommendation. In terms of significance for brands and those in online marketing, instead of simply seeing which brands friends or connections have +1’d, we will give sentiment. This works at a more passive level, as opposed to an expected Google+ search feature that allows users to actively search trending topics of discussion. One of the potential issues that comes to mind though is how varying sentiments will interact with search. Will a less-than-positive recommendation affect how relevant Google deems the link-accompanying post to be? Should shared links with a negative slant be given ‘prominence’ in the SERP at all? We shouldn’t forget that for social search to have any effect on search results at all, users must be signed into their Google accounts. As Google+ draws closer to a proper release, we can expect an increase in Google accounts, which means that potentially, this feature could affect ORM as well as SEO. While pushing content down the search results has been a staple of ORM for a long time, we could see annotated messages of varying sentiment attached to brand-related pages such as social media profiles, provided the messages are relevant. If this feature can potentially serve certain brands through recommendations among friends, it will be interesting to see how interaction with Google’s upcoming business profiles will affect Google search results. These interactions will be a large source of information in terms of customer dispositions. Ford’s Google+ profile has lent relevance to any results for any searches from those with Ford in their circles. Will conveying the support of businesses through Google+ affect search results as well at some point?