THE GOOGLE PLUS BOX - MORE INNOVATIONS FROM THE BIG G...

Paul Carpenter 23rd March 2007
Paul Carpenter

With Google casting such a long shadow over the search marketing industry for such a long time now, their every move is greeted with a flurry of excitement in the search industry. Their latest innovation - called the 'plus box' - is no exception.

You can read more about the feature at the official Google Blog. What is interesting for a company like us, is that Google are finding ways to embed more information directly into their search results pages. In some cases, this information is going to be so directly pertinent to a searcher that it means that they will have no need to click through to the site itself.

On the face of it, this makes life easier for the searcher. If you can get a nice location map and contact details for a company without having to click the Google listing and begin a hunt around on the site itself, then it makes your own life a fraction simpler.

True - a small innovation. As ever with Google, it is worth bearing in mind that they are a (hugely powerful) commercial organisation. By keeping you on their search results page for longer, they are increasing the time you have available to study their advertising - which even if it means only a fractional difference could yield many more clicks (and therefore money).

By including their own 'maps' solution (which is a very nice piece of kit, in case you haven't used it) they are also keeping you on their network. What's more, if someone clicks the 'more local business results' link, then they will see direct competitors to your business.

Today's Moral

As ever with Google, their desire to provide the best user experience is couched within their need to innovate new revenue-generating opportunities for themselves. Often - the two can be made to work hand in hand, and it is a lesson well worth taking when considering your own site's design and feature set.

Notes and Queries...

Hi Gary

Basically it's entirely down to Google's discretion - so there isn't much you yourself can do. At the moment it is reserved for companies that Google are really sure about, which mainly means big corporations. The only advice we can give is the same as that in the Google blog article we pointed to: Get your business listed on Google Maps and wait and see!

Over time, they're planning to expand the functions of the plus box to include things like stock prices etc (which they already do for some selected individual sites like Apple.com) so the more information you publish on the web, the better your chances.
Paul Carpenter 30th March 2007
Any advice on how I can get one on my website>?
Gary M 30th March 2007
 
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