Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Google, Social Networking | 3 Comments

What’s the big deal about Google’s search plus your world?

For the first time since they pulled out of China, Google really got down and dirty yesterday with the launch of Search plus your world.  SPYW (or Search+ as I’ve started referring to it as) is Google’s way of driving new users to their ailing social media site Google+ in a desperate attempt to usurp Facebook’s mantle.  The concept is really rather simple.  Rather that feeding you results based on the open web, Google are including results from your contacts on Google+ (only when you’re logged in mind).  This is optional at present (but it’s pretty much a sure thing that the default will be ‘on’) and will result in a search for ‘Bali’ (for example) bringing up friend’s pictures of their holiday in Bali, status updates mentioning Bali and such like.  Within minutes of Google going live with search+ in the US the blogs lit up (you can see my own to and fro’ing in the comments section of http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8643-google-adds-social-content-from-google-into-search-results) as assorted techie types cried foul.  But why is this?  In short:

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Personal, Social Networking | 0 Comments

Pipped at the post

You know how sometimes you come up with a really great idea?  One that you’re sure will make you “a millionaire by this time next year”?  Well that happened to me a few weeks back.

Hang on, I thought to myself whilst writing my econsultancy presentation on content targeting.  Wouldn’t it be great if on pulling out my final slide, instead of having a long and unwieldy list of all my social profiles for viewers to note down, I could just have a single page url where everything was amalgamated?  It could be a really simple page.  Content managed and aesthetically pleasing, it would be a doddle to add new social feeds as and when you signed up to them.  This is it, I thought.  This is the big one.

Then along came about bloody me.  About.me does everything I was planning, and to be fair, they’ve probably done a far better job that I ever could have.  Swines.  So, in the spirit of fair play here’s a plug for their tool.  It really is a great bit of kit.  So good in face that I’ve even signed up myself at about.me/webconsultancy.

Now, who’s in the market for this great new collaboration tool I’ve just invented?  I’m going to call it an ‘Internet’.

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Social Networking, User experience | 0 Comments

Quit complaining, peanut.

There’s been a lot of moral indignation recently about the changes Facebook’s been making to their GUI (Graphic User Interface to the uninitiated).  Functionality keeps being added, removed, tweaked and moved around on the screen and Facebook users are out on mass having a good grumble about how it’s not like it used to be in the good old days (last month?).  Now. Ignoring the fact that these same users voice these same concerns everytime Facebook make a change.  I feel I have to point out a rather unpalatable fact to my Facebook chums.  Sorry guys. Get over it. We’re peanuts.

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Social Networking | 0 Comments

Facebook edgerank explained

Can’t claim this one for myself I’m afraid, however, Econsultancy’s Kelvin Newman has produced one of the most comprensive and usable guides to making the most out of Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm.  Well worth reading.

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7885-edgerank-the-most-important-algorithm-you-ve-never-heard-of?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Google, Social Networking | 1 Comment

Social wars – Google plus Vs Facebook

For those of you who are a little bit puzzled about the almost fanatical attention Google plus is getting in the tech press at the moment, I thought it would be worth elaborating on the fresh perspective that Google is bringing to the social networking table.  As most of you will know, plus is Google’s long overdue attempt at creating a viable social network.  Invitations to this network have been rarer than a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket, and I’ve even seen them up for sale on Ebay.

Now, from the offset, I have to say that plus isn’t necessarily better than Facebook.  Different, yes.  But that’s as far as it goes for now.  Different is good.  Different is how evolution works, and different is how species survive.  But of course, for one species to thrive, competitor species must fail, and so Facebook have their hackles up and are circling plus looking for signs of weakness.  Will they find any?  It’s too early to say, but for now, a quick comparison of the two services will suffice.

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Social Networking | 0 Comments

Facebook Pages come of age

Any marketing types logging into their corporate Facebook pages yesterday might have been a little surprised to note that there’d been quite a few changes overnight.

Facebook pages, for those who aren’t in the know, are supposed to be  the branded equivalent to a Facebook profile. Except they’re not, because up until yesterday, they were frankly rubbish.