Starting today, you will be seeing what Google calls “social search results” interspersed throughout the traditional Google search results, based on Google’s idea of relevance. If you are connected to people on Blogger, Twitter, flickr and similar publicly available sites, Google will be letting you know who shared or published the information contained in the content returned in the SERP.
Hoping for more personalized and relevant results, Google’s justification is they want to help you find the most relevant information possible.
The search and social media landscape is changing so fast that half of what we knew a year ago is now obsolete.
If you want to see evidence of the pace of change, just check out the conference agenda for SES New York 2011 and compare it with the conference agenda for SES New York 2010. At least 50 percent of the sessions at the upcoming search and social marketing event weren’t even on the agenda a year ago.
And that percentage is likely to increase as some of the slots reserved for late-breaking topics get filled in.
SES London 2011 is just around the corner. It will be held Feb. 21-25, 2011, in a new location. And it will feature a number of significant changes to the conference agenda that reflect the new branding of SES as “The Leading Search and Social Marketing Event.”
Let’s start with the new location: The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London. As you can see from the photo below, the Centre is uniquely situated amongst Big Ben, Westminster Abbey an The Houses of Parliament.
SES is collaborating with OMS to hold a one-day event for the experienced marketer on Feb. 10, 2011, that is dedicated to learning advanced topics in Search & Social. Called SES Accelerator, it’s part of the annual Online Marketing Summit, which will be held in San Diego from Feb. 7 to 11, 2011.
The keynote speaker for SES Search & Social Accelerator will be Mikel Chertudi, Vice President of Online & Demand Marketing at Adobe and a member of the SES Advisory Board.
Even in mid-November, many marketers are still preparing their marketing budgets for next year — which will probably be revised in three months — which is why virturally no one prepares a five-year plan anymore. But what if you were asked to come up with some smart search and social media marketing strategies for a decade of deflation?
Ain’t gonna happen, right?
Well, A. Gary Shilling, an award-winning economic forecaster, told Minyanville today that the global economy is going through a long period of deleveraging and weak growth — which makes deflation far more likely and a far greater threat than inflation.
Yahoo is focusing on content indeed but it also remains committed to search, Senior VP of Search Shashi Seth told us during a conversation at the company’s premises in Sunnyvale.
Shift?
Many elements have been pointing recently to a shift in Yahoo’s strategy from search to content: the company acquired Associated Content, entered a deal with Nokia, went through a management reshuffle, including recently the departures of top search heads. And of course, there is the Search Alliance under which Microsoft’s Bing will power Yahoo’s search activities.
Yahoo is currently testing its “Infinite Browse” feature with a limited number of users. Infinite Browse literally comes in a box below Yahoo News and suggests images, videos, news articles, slideshows, as well as related searches.
The user thus stays on the same page (hello dwell time) and no longer has to go to a separate page to further his/her search. No wonder Yahoo claims that so far user engagement with the new module “is nearly twice the amount we see with similar features.” The company did not provide a timeframe for the full roll out of the feature but said it is part of its strategy to enhance and roll out “new search-powered features across the Yahoo! Network.” This includes the recently optimized “Trending Now” related-topics suggestions feature that Yahoo says has “more than doubled” click through rates.
The rumor is growing fast. Now the New York Post has it that Google could launch its search-related music store as early as this holiday season, i.e. November-December.
“Accelerated” Talks
The newspaper reports that Android VP at Google, Andy Rubin, is having “accelerated” talks with music publishing firm Harry Fox Agency to secure rights to as many titles as possible among the publishers’ 27 000 songs. Apparently, talks have now reached the stage where both companies are not only discussing prices and rights availability but also business models. Rubin being involved, it’s a given that the service will be available on Android.
AOL is currently gauging the offers of several companies to power its search as its $700 million-a-year deal with Google is set to expire in December. Whether it renews its agreement with Google or switches to another search company, AOL is likely to sign in its partner for the few years to come by September, according to various reports.
Foursquare, the location-based social media site, is aware of the value of its data for searches and has started talking to “a lot of different potential partners,” including industry majors such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in order to clinch data deals.
Data Power
Speaking to The Telegraph in an interview, Foursquare’s co-founder, Dennis Crowley, said: “Our data generates hugely interesting trends which would enrich search.” “We can anonymise data and use it to show venues which are trending at that moment,” he explained.
In Talks
