Google Profiles Go to the SERPs

Google as a social network has been getting a bit more play recently as they have made certain moves like giving users the ability to create vanity URLs for their profiles.

One wild card that Google has that trumps all other social networks is that it is the largest brand on the web. Furthermore, it is the largest search engine.

Today Google announced that Google profiles will start being included at the bottom of search results pages where applicable. And suddenly, a lot of people that were just using Google the search engine may realize that that they’re already using Google the social network. Those with accounts may or may not see their own profiles show up in ego searches, and those without a counts may notice profiles they didn’t know existed and be influenced to start one.

Those without accounts can simply google " me " and the top result is a promoted spot by Google leading to Google account profile setup.

This could potentially even help improve reputation management at least to some small degree. "When searching for yourself to see what others would find, results can be varied and aren’t always what you want people to see — whether it’s someone else with your name, or the finishing time from that 5K you ran back in 2002. We want to make that better and give you more of a voice," says Google’s Brian Stoler.

Users who want to appear on SERPs will probably want to fill out their profiles if they have not already done so. The vanity URL is certainly an option as well, though it is unclear as to whether or not using this has any influence on showing up in the SERPs. There is room for 4 profiles on any given SERP.

There are 22 Comments. Add Yours.

Maryse Felicite
April 21, 2009 at 9:41 pm

Very interesting piece of information. Thanks Chris.
Hicham Maged
April 22, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Seems to me another step into linking the the social networking world with Google’s!
Hosting
April 23, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Google are always coming up with great ideas that help others and themselves.
kylegetson
April 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm

sounds like a good idea… but i think theres enough spam out there already, and this could be used for alot of non ‘helpful’ ways…. plus I can’t think of a time where I was actually searching for someone specifically, unless the person is famous, in which case, they probably have a website, or more information in other places… I am interested to see where it goes though.
Jehzeel Laurente
April 23, 2009 at 2:09 pm

one thing weird though is when after I changed my google profile URL to a customized URL:

My old profile’s URL was: http://www.google.com/s2/profiles/114425422816093786662

After I changed it to:
http://www.google.com/profiles/jehzlau

I was gone in the SERPs. Or maybe I should wait longer for it to be indexed again eh?
H
April 23, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Another tactic from google to domainate search engine industry. Google always innovate and win, except the total failure “checkout”
Suddle D
April 23, 2009 at 5:02 pm

“Will Expose Google’s Social Netowrk to the Masses”
I think your spell check missed a word…. “Netowrk”
John
April 23, 2009 at 7:16 pm

The results will only show on US search pages.. and I am not sure it will even show profiles on non US people.
I guess like all their new stuff they will slowly spread it over the rest of the world.
Guest
April 24, 2009 at 12:17 am

If you want to publish Webpronews to the world you should start being a little more accurate in your reporting and stop wasting peoples time. Advising people to verify their names in the Google profile when it only applies to the US is pretty silly. People outside the US waste their time looking for feature that isn’t there.
- Guest
  April 24, 2009 at 11:04 am
  
  America isn’t the world. And the web isn’t even an American invention. It’s extremely annoying to be told about new features or developments only to then discover that they are only available in the US.
  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve gone through lengthy sign-up processes – eg, opening processing accounts – only to see a message, on the final page, that the service is available to US residents only.
  
  Also, regarding this article, I found it rather confusing and uninformative (ie, lacking in specific information).
yos
April 24, 2009 at 6:13 am

waw..

very interest..

i want it, but how can i get ??

give me info
Kate
April 24, 2009 at 11:10 am

… my Google account information to be visible in search results?

And how do I know what’s being displayed (in the US) in search results for my name/business?

The Greedy Google monster sees profit in social networking, and doubtless will soon gobble up the competition as it has done in every other area of the web.
- Guest
  April 26, 2009 at 9:55 am
  
  “What if I don’t want my Google account information to be visible in search results?”
  
  I have the same question. I hope someone can answer it.
Pravish Thomas
April 24, 2009 at 3:16 pm

This is a smart move well planned by Google. Yes what google does is correct as if it needs to stay ahead to dominate search. Its pure business and its good every time Google comes up with something new there is always a buzz going around.

There are also many areas where google has not got success, so experimenting in the social arena is really great idea. There is no bias thinking here, as in business u need to do some real kinda stuff to stay ALIVE!!!!!

Google DOMINATION #1
sathesh
April 25, 2009 at 7:56 am

Yes.. The Big G is always Big
SEO Blog
April 26, 2009 at 12:45 pm

Wow this is a great innovation by Google
Loose Gemstones
May 21, 2009 at 4:18 pm

Great idea, looking forward to seeing my profile show up in search!
parcel delivery
June 3, 2009 at 5:21 pm

This is probably the first step towards integrating other social networks with google. They will, one by one, in the near future probably become part of google… the main ones, the ones that actually matters, anyway. So, as with the search engines
Tmdesigner
July 7, 2009 at 5:34 am

Wow, intresting new! By Google we can inprove our Universal Profile.. so nice thing.. I want it!
Frank
November 19, 2009 at 5:16 am

Is this business profile or your own profile?
Cheap hotels London City centre
November 19, 2009 at 5:20 am

Do you mean when someone googles your name the whole profile will show up?
william
January 31, 2010 at 11:02 am

It seems to me that “G” wants to act more now like a big brother. Collecting data about us, and what will happen to this data? Will this be shared with any Goverment agencies etc ?
I will not be in interested like many in this new venture in profiles by the big “G”.