This is a new breed of search results not based on keywords and is ignorant of SEO perfection. The algorithm writers at Google have been busy opening up new avenues by offering a new breed of search result links that we might want to follow. These results are labeled as "Social Content" and are an entirely new type of search result. They are based on the connection between the search term that has been entered, and the connections that that you have made in any social media networks. The primary contacts can be from your Gmail contacts list.

Big Brother or Innovative Helper?

This means that every time you search for an item, if one of your own contacts may be able to help, they are shown in the search results, and ranked highly too. Thus Google has now reeled in the edges of your network to include your immediate circle of networked contacts in its results. This might sound like an obvious idea from Google's point of view but it really is quite a new connection that has been made here. Once details of your interaction with the many other social media networks out there become available to Google, such as your friends list on Facebook, your list of Twitter contacts or your business contacts on LinkedIn, a huge network of secondary contacts can be assembled, all of which may be included in these new high ranking results. It is a little frightening from a consumer perspective. Google knows what you have searched for, they know who you have contacted and are associated with. They also know what you are buying because they can see who clicks through the advertising, both on their search pages and elsewhere; they even know which click-throughs convert into sales. Google knows a lot about us all now! There is nothing more sinister though than providing a 22nd century approach to a 21st century problem. None of us want HAL9000 in our lives (Space Odyssey 2001, "computer takes over from the humans for a greater good" scenario), but we do benefit from a means of getting our hands on the information and contacts that we need when we make an online search.

So Where Does Online Marketing Fit In?

This new result on the page has to be utilized to its full potential. For instance if you sell umbrellas and all your friends Twitter and Facebook comment that your umbrellas are great, that would now have an impact amongst their friends when they search in future for an umbrella. The theory is that as friends of friends, you become a secondary (and reliable) contact for the friend of a friend that needs a new umbrella, so Google will in future rank you alongside all the big umbrella vendors when that secondary contact searches for an umbrella in a search query. This is where the "full circle" has come in that was mentioned at the beginning of this discussion. We are now getting preferential advertising amongst people that we know through social and business networking media channels. This is in BETA implementation at Google right now and will probably be a full launch soon. With this in mind, those who are considering learning how to make a website, must now make even more effort to encourage visitors to follow through and accept contact via any social media or online business networking mechanism available – the jewel in the crown would now be their Gmail address. If you can get website visitors to support you in this manner, you may be guaranteed a secondary link for instance with each of the Facebook friends they may have. Every time they search for the term that applies to your products or business you get a first page ranking. It is the latest in search engine ranking innovation and those building a new website ought to take note of this and include widgets that will allow visitors to link to you easily. Each one might be worth their weight in gold if the Google revolution keeps on. There seems to be no stopping the ever-advancing Google machine, the best advice is to build a website, get networked, and jump on for the ride!