Update: Google+ and Sparks are no longer around.
Technology is in a perpetual state of improvement and re-invention in order to stay ahead of the competition. The world of social media is no different. Since 2004, social networking giant, Facebook, has dominated the landscape by keeping over 700 million users connected.
Though Facebook’s relevance and presence in the social media market are more strongly felt than any other, the sheer magnitude of this iconic site has begun to diminish the original exclusivity that it was born from.
This has created a dilemma for some users. As in real life, you may be friends with many people, but you do not want to share every conversation, photo, video, or memory with all of them. The same can be said for the social networking world as well.
Enter Google+. In an attempt to cater to those needs, Google launched a trial version of its new social networking site. The main feature that distinguishes Google+ is “Circles”. Circles allow the user to allocate friends into groups for a limited sharing experience so that not everyone sees every comment, photo, or video that you share.
Another new feature on Google+ that will help differentiate itself from Facebook is “Sparks”. Sparks is linked to Google’s search engine and after telling Sparks what you are interested in (by typing in information as you would for a Google search) it streams information to you and the people within your circle based upon common interests. Sparks provides results for products, events, or anything that one has shown interest in. These results can in turn be easily shared with others in their Circle.
The combination of these two features seems to further enhance the necessity for your site to have strong SEO capabilities. Since Sparks is connected to Google’s search engine, page rank especially on Google would obviously be an important factor, but it may not be the entire story.
In a recent article by Barry Schwartz, he noted that he had spoken with Dewitt Clinton of Google on this very topic. Here is the response he received in regard to how Sparks results will be generated, “Still very much in flux and being further expanded and tuned… but this is very early still.”
Since it is still in the test phase only time will tell how valuable of a resource this will be, but one thing that is evident is the necessity for your site to be visible on search engines especially in an age where search results will not only be sought out by the consumer, but also suggested to them based on their searches, interests, and needs as well.
