Google is spreading Plus, its social network, through a variety of new mediums. The most recent is the inclusion of public posts in the Google SERP. These posts only appear to users who are connected to the original poster on Google+.
The Public Post Imports
Here’s how it workss: If a users is logged into their Google+ account when they visit the search page, their search results will also include posts made by those who are in one or more of the user’s Circles. Only public posts are shown. Each post also includes the date of publication, the name of the posted, an image of the poster, and a notification that the post was originally shared on Google+.
This may be Google’s way of returning to realtime search. Google realtime shut down in June when Google and Twitter didn’t re-up their agreement for Twitter’s firehose of Twitter post data. Google indicated that they’d be bringing realtime search back with Google+ information.
The Importance of Plus Postings
This choice also makes Google+ more important for businesses. While there is not yet a business profile as part of Google+, the future is clear: If businesses get onto Plus, connect with people, and share posts relevant to their keywords, they’ll gain a new access point inside the search engines. However, businesses won’t be able to experiment with this approach until business accounts are released; that’s expected to happen later this year.
Meanwhile, the public Plus posting will be visible in the SERP in the coming days.
[Sources include: Inside Search]
