With the rise of Facebook and its advertising luring more online ad spend away from Google’s cash cow, AdWords, the search giant has come storming back with the Google+ project. All this comes after the failure of Google Buzz; its first attempt at creating its own social networking platform.
My thoughts after an initial look at Google+ are that it might just work, if – and it’s a big ‘if’ – they can get enough people to take it up.
As I see it, the main problem is the inability for people to export their friend lists from Facebook directly into Google+.
But let’s kick off with a look at some of the features Google+ brings to the table.
First off is the ‘Circles’ feature, where you get to properly organise your family and friends, workmates and acquaintances into groups. This means you can make sure you’re sending a shared status update to the appropriate people.
Even though Facebook offers friend lists and groups, hardly anyone uses these features and status updates tend to be a lot more of a broadcast. It you like being organised, Circles is for you.
The other feature worth noting is Sparks, where you can list your interests ¬– be it skateboarding, SEO, pencil sharpeners, or whatever. You can group your friends into these shared interests, which means you can share things in a very targeted way with like-minded friends.
There’s also an Android-based mobile app called Hangout, which allows you to chat with your friends in small social huddles. Cute, but not sure if it will work – then again, I’ve been wrong before.
At the end of the day, though, this is all about advertising.
One of the things Google hasn’t been able to do with its advertising is target demographics and interests very well. Facebook has got it down in this area and that’s why it has become so attractive to advertisers.
Google had a crack at demographic targeting in Google AdWords – there’s a setting in your account which allows you to target people of certain ages and of either sex through the Google Content Network – but it hasn’t been particularly successful in my experience. It certainly doesn’t have the laser=guided targeting of Facebook Advertising.
On the flip side, Facebook hasn’t (yet) extended its advertising reach with a partner program like Google’s AdSense. Facebook also hasn’t monetised its Facebook Mobile app, which is good for us, but perhaps a missed opportunity for them? Imagine location-specific Facebook deals popping up from local business on your phone. Then again, it could probably be more annoying than useful!
With Google+, the minute you start using the Sparks, feature you’ll be segmented for companies to deliver you targeted advertisements. I’ll bet the house on it.
As you work your way through Google’s content text-work of partner sites, I’ll probably also be able to show you ads based on the interests you told Google about in Sparks, together with any other interests they earn about you along the way.
Google’s already offering something similar with its Remarketing platform, so it won’t be too much of a stretch for it to do the same thing with Google+
But as I said a little while ago, Google has a huge user-base of people using its various products, but with the exception of gmail, we are all fairly fragmented.
Google+ could just bring it all together.
Now all the company needs to do is change its name!
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Chris Thomas heads up Reseo, a search engine optimisation company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.
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