Eric Schmidt confirms Google+ content is given search priority

Submitted by JasonD on Mon, 2013-02-11 03:33

Marketing & Advertising

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/02/11/eric-schmidt-confirms-google-content-given-search-priority

Quote:

Excerpts from Google boss Eric Schmidt’s new book, ‘The New Digital Age’, have confirmed that Google + is acting an identity verification network – with such material being given priority in search rankings.

Is this confirmation of something we've all known for some time? Is this Google abusing it's position over competitors?

Comments

Just underlines what people

Submitted by Brian_Turner on Mon, 2013-02-11 05:43.

Just underlines what people have been saying - Google made itself an essential internet tool by providing a means for people to find content.

For years, Google has been on the road of just providing more and more Google content instead. Thus making Google less useful.

The Drum, in its usual

Submitted by TheRealBoydo on Mon, 2013-02-11 07:24.

The Drum, in its usual infinite wisdom, jumped to conclusions here IMO. The quote they refer to:

"“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”"

This could mean anything. Google's algos have always had some kind of authoritative bias - that's all link popularity was. Anonymity results in no natural links acquired, resulting in no high rankings, resulting in irrelevance.

The term "verified online profiles" has been taken far too literally - from a tech geek point of view, it could mean anything ranging from a strong backlink profile, public DNS records, company registration information, non-link citations and to / including / any mix of social media profile verifications. "Verified" and "profiles" are two subjective words in this instance that don't necessarily refer to Google+.

And realistically, Google+ if does become a tangible factor. Then what? It's a decider for all of 5 minutes until every website jumps on the bandwagon.

That said, I fully believe Google would use rankings as a carrort on a stick to drive Google+ uptake. But I think it's more likey be an initiative driven by the marketing department than the search quality team.

It makes sense - but

Submitted by billhartzer on Mon, 2013-02-11 14:10.

It makes sense that Google would rely a bit more on verified data or verified information. However, that does not mean that you're going to extra brownie points and get better search engine rankings in Google if you have verified Google Authorship.

what does "verified" mean?

Submitted by kurtjames on Tue, 2013-02-12 00:47.

does it mean anyone with "google authorship" enabled? or is it some other type of verified account?

Google started nuking some of

Submitted by seobook on Tue, 2013-02-12 16:00.

Google started nuking some of their reviews that were not tied to people with a Google+ account & started tying some older reviews into a Google+ account...so I don't think it is a big stretch to call it a "Google+ promo" ... I mean, given the black PR smear Google engineers did on Facebook (and Facebook's intent to eventually create a distributed online ad network), we know they were not referencing subsidizing Facebook as being a key to online survival.