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Googopoly. The Future of Search and Social.

Gerald — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:26:09 +0000

The problem with the artist formerly referred to as Social Media is – besides many other things – that it is in the agency business commonly understood as some crazy shit that you stage on Facebook to win a Cannes Lion in the end.

That of course is wrong. Specifically if you take a look at the rarely talked about opportunities of intertwining the worlds of search and social.

A while ago I had the pleasure to get to know Tom Smith, founder of Trendstream, the company behind the GlobalWebIndex and the great Wave studies conducted on behalf of McCann.

Tom’s following presentation, given at the International Search Summit in Munich, discusses the idea of what he describes as the ‘Googopoly’, where Google has risen to control most of what we see and do online.

Even though I doubt the relevance of google Plus I found Tom’s key takeaway extremely smart: It is not just about google+. It is about how google cements its position with a multitude of tools like Chrome, Android and many others in order to enforce search thinking into anything that’s social nowadays.

Great presentation. Thanks to We are Social for the link…

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Post tags: Facebook, google, google plus, Insights, People, Prediction, Presentation, Report, Reports, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Study, trendstream, World

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What SEO Does. In One Image.

Gerald — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:22:00 +0000

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Post tags: Funny, google, search, seo, visual

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google Zeitgeist. What the World searched for in 2011.

Gerald — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:24:47 +0000

As the year 2011 ends google has once again collated the world’s searches into one platform about the last 12 months. Nothing says as much about what people are really interested in than search data. And google really did a great job to stage Zeitgeist 2011 with a lot of interesting information on what this ~~horrible~~ ~~great~~ exciting year was all about for people all over the world: http://www.googlezeitgeist.com

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Post tags: data, google, history, People, Politics, search, seo, Trends, World, Zeitgeist

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Dear google. google+ is getting a bit boring.

Gerald — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Hi google.

I guess it wasn’t your intention. But I have to say google+ is rather boring right at the moment.

Yes, I know. When you sent out the first g+ invites everyone was extremely positive. It felt a bit like complimenting a rather slow kid for the nice picture it has sketched. And yes, a lot of people really, really wanted an invite.

Fast forward two months: I still really haven’t figured out why google Plus is meant to be a revolution. Interface-wise it is a good hybrid between Facebook and twitter. And yes: the Circles concept is a nice iteration to social networking as well as its likely future search relevance.

But a revolution looks different. Particularly as the most interesting stuff that’s happening on google Plus is exactly the same stuff that’s happening on all the other platforms.

Right now the google+ party…

almost exclusively consists of Social Media Gurus, Personal Coaches, and bizarre Small Businesses who don’t want to be late adopters again (‘this time I won’t join it 5 years too late’)
derives its right to party from the claim that it offers better functionalities than other platforms from which it has stolen its concepts – I still haven’t figured out how a Skype-like functionality should motivate me long term
gets more and more intolerable due to its real name policy
still has not communicated when it is likely going to be more exciting

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Post tags: google, google plus, Social Media, Social Networks, Tools

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google Plus. Now for something completely different: Brands.

Gerald — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:21:41 +0000

High five Jeff Kwiatek. You asked the right question. But to be honest: Even though I want to be the first agency dude leveraging and embracing the hell out of g+ I still don’t know if it’s worth it. Well who knows?

My guess: Nice platform, it is not Facebook. But it’s a too little too late. And the worst thing: They don’t even offer the right tools to enable brands to give consumers the love that they need. Let me quote Jeff Huber, google’s VP of Local and Commerce (via Mike Blumenthal)

And pre-emptively answering a question — yes, we will have (smb) business profile pages on Google+. I can’t announce a launch date yet, but we want to make them *great*, and we’re coding as fast as we can.

Thanks god a couple of people are a bit more visionary. They know what the consumer wants and that is brands of course. Sean Percival has sketched a concept of how future brand pages might look like (exactly like Facebook but a bit uglier). And indeed one brand has already started to build a presence on google Plus: Ford and Ford Europe. Congratulations Scott Monty. First!

As most of us haven’t even got an invite to g+. And the rest of us still tries to figure out why they would need g+ it is highly speculative to talk about the future of brands there. I wonder what google will come up with to convince brands that building a presence there is a good alternative to ~~Facebook~~ other platforms.

Anyway, I am more than interested which brands are going to start experimenting with g+. If you know of some, please leave a comment.

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Post tags: Brands, Business, Ford, google, google plus, Social, Social Networking, Starbucks, Strategy, Trends

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google Plus. Why it’s not about becoming another Facebook.

Gerald — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:23:06 +0000

Unless you have been hiding under a rock you probably have heard about google+ or you are already registered user. And just in case you hid under a rock, I let the guys from NMA News explain what google+ is…simply because I love their videos.

So after testing google Plus for two days I am as positive about it as most others I talked to. google simply built a platform with more Pros than Cons. Something you can imagine to use in the future because it combines some of the best features of everything you already use and wraps them in one platform. Ooooh…and a couple of nice new concepts come with the package: google hangout for example (definitely a winner). And I guess Facebook really jumpstarts now to get the Skype cooperation up and running. Among other things.

Stupid debates usually start with terms like (fill blank) killer. Can you remember one game changing product that was announced as the iPhone/Facebook/whatever killer and lived up to it? Not one product out there. And I think the industry has become smart enough not to put this into the focus of discussions around google+ too much. Simply because it is pointless.

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Post tags: Facebook, Foursquare, google, Social, Social Networks, Strategy, Tools, Twitter

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Awesome. Germany now has its own google Street View Postcards.

Gerald — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:44:46 +0000

After much controversy, setbacks and negotiations, Google Street View is going live in Germany. Well…kind of. In fact Germany’s government has done a terrific job in spreading fear about the privacy eating data octopus google while strangely enough federal institutions take photos of every inch of surface in Germany. To celebrate the final roll out of google Street View in Germany Sascha has staged a couple of Street View postcards from Germany. I kind of like them…

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Post tags: Funny, Germany, google, google Street View, World

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google. A not so evil look back on its History.

Gerald — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:27:38 +0000

google sure does combine many elements of a modern tech fairy tale. It is extremely successful (please, don’t mention social networks now), it did not exist 15 years ago and started with a very philanthropic vision…at least they tried. While the company still pretends to stick to its ‘Don’t be evil‘ mantra, others call it ‘a company on steroids with fingers in every industry’. The glass is always half full or half empty, right?

Google UK has now staged a (very) quick look back at the its history over the last 11 years. From Stanford to Mountain View and around the world, featuring many different products, starting with BackRub (Search) up to Google Wave, StreetView and Chrome. Enjoy the cute little animations and in case you are keener on a more critical view of the brand, try the Beast File. (via)

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Post tags: Business, google, history, net neutrality, Presentation, Truth, visual, World

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google Me. Or: How I stopped worrying and learned to love Privacy.

Gerald Hensel — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:59:44 +0000

Most of you may have heard about the so called Facebook killer ‘Google Me‘ that supposedly binds half of google’s resources currently. And as most of you know, google has not exactly been successful with social networking by now. Especially after google Buzz also failed as a platform that is able to compete with Facebook. google knows they need to get their hands on social. Why? Steve Rubel explains it quite well…

google will ‘continue to dominate “pull.” But Facebook will aggregate content, make it social and rule “push.” Using our social circle it will surface content that we care about just when we want it – and allow us to comment on it all. As more people use Facebook to connect, share and create, a network effect takes over – and the system get even smarter.’ And that is exactly what google needs to do to stay alive in the long term.

No matter how successful Facebook is with its social strategy – they need to conquer Planet Push asap or become Facebook’s junior partner. In the middle of all the buzz about google Me we have to read the deck embedded below as a first rationale for google’s new platform – not as the ‘designing social networks’ deck that it wants to be. It was created by one of google’s lead User Experience architects Paul Adams and it criticizes Facebook existing social networks and the way they make people interact with a clear focus on privacy. What a surprise!

Even beyond the google Me hype – definitely a deck worth to take a look at (even though it is looooong).

Big question: Do you think google might make it this time? Do you believe privacy will be an USP strong enough to differentiate google Me from Facebook? Leave a reply.

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Post tags: Business, Facebook, google, google me, Prediction, Presentation, privacy, Reports, Social Networks, Strategy, World

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Hey Mashable. I think you can drop the google Buzz button now.

Gerald Hensel — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:36:50 +0000

I don’ t want to say, I told you so. But I told you so. Nobody gives a rat’s ass about google’s twitter killer social network thing that is not as cool as the other things with massive privacy flaws. Chitika has the figures:

February 9th, 2010 – the day Buzz was launched – the search engines lit up with queries. The Chitika network saw about 1,500 searches that day for the term “Google Buzz,” approximately 15 times the number of searches for “Twitter.”

By the 15th, searches for the service had dwindled to less than ten a day, and since February 26th there has been a constant stream of one search per day.

Finally I want to add an artwork which I have created from share buttons on mashable’s homepage. I think we can drop the google buzz button now, can we?

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Post tags: google, google Buzz, mashable, Prediction, Social Networks, Tech, Tools, Twitter

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