Social & Search News Round Up – A Big Week For Google
Posted: Friday 29 June, 2012
Will Davis
It’s Friday, so who’s up for a quick round up of the top social and search news stories from this week?
On the social front, Google has introduced updates for both the +1 button and the events feature on Google+. Moving forward, when a user clicks on or hovers over a +1 button on an external site, a list of suggested websites from the same domain will appear. The updates to the Google+ events feature will allow users to invite their friends (both on and off the network) to events, helping to attract those not on the network into the Google+ fold.
Outside of Google+, Facebook is testing and implementing a number of different features. While updates for administrators have been introduced this week, making it easier for page admins to post as either themselves or as a page, it would appear Facebook is also testing the use of a “want” button to be used within the Open Graph. However, whether this will see the light of day remains to be seen.
On the search side of things, we’re heading back to Google, which has introduced a redesigned mobile search experience. The update includes improved search and “Google Now”, a function that takes the user’s calendar, location and other data inputs to produce the most relevant search results possible. Google has also announced the roll out of its latest Panda update, version 3.8. This is only a minor update, which will affect less than one percent of queries worldwide. Google claimed that the update wouldn’t be an update to the algorithm, but simply a data refresh, although this still demonstrates Google’s dedication to presenting users with the best search results possible.
For more news from the social and search sectors, follow these links to take a look at our two weekly intelligence documents: Social Media Intelligence and Search Engine Intelligence.
