The one hitch mobile users had was the lag time and low streaming quality which gave a poor performance for anyone using a mobile device. Now quality has risen to a level where those joining in on a Hangout with their phone or tablet can get the same quality as a desktop.  Now you will see a starting soon screen and an immediately stream of the broadcast as well. Before, you would have to refresh the page in order to know when the video has started.  So lots of new features on these Google Hangouts.

Google coincided the new features with the premiere of the first Ender’s Game trailer, which was announced during this live hangout:

Source: Google+ Hangouts-On-Air Now Feature Live Rewind, Instant Publishing http://www.reelseo.com/google-hangouts-on-air-feature-live-rewind-instant-publishing/#ixzz2SjgaVFdk

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Rumors are circulating that Google will be making a major change to its Maps Interface ahead of the big I/O convention. Unofficial News from trusted sites have pronounced that the Web giant is said to be rolling out an update that takes away sidebars and navigational buttons and concentrates more on one big interactive map.

The same sites have also posted images of what the new Maps interface will look like. With no Sidebar, different colors, and new icons on a larger Maps screen, we will be seeing an array of new features in the coming days. Another supposed change is that search results can supposedly be filtered for recommendations by users’ Google+ circles.

We have all seen Google tampering with Maps and its other service sites with added features and such. But, this is the first time Google will be doing a complete revamp of Maps in years which could either be a beneficial thing for many users or a major disappointment for most.

Most sources do not know the exact day of launch, but Google Operating System does note that Google’s I/O is next week and that could be a good time for the company to announce such changes.

Source: CNET

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Think Google has already thought of everything? How bout live chat on Google+ Hangout and having someone take over your computer remotely?

Google’s new Hangout Remote Desktop app allows you to help friends and family run diagnostics, open apps, change settings, or even turn on your Spotify. Google engineer Daniel Caiafa said that one of the benefits of Hangout Remote Desktop is you will be able to see what the other person is doing on your desktop cause that person or you are hosting the a Hangout.

Permission is needed from either party being accessed to be able to use the application of course. To use it, start a Hangout, click View More Apps and then Add Apps, and then select Hangouts Remote Desktop.

This could be a great benefit to all those needing a helping tech hand. How people will use this wonderful new feature, only time will tell.

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Finally, one of the most popular applications for Android will now be available for the iOS. It’s called Google Now, and iOS users will find it inside the Google Search app. Google Now will become your new best friend and personal assistant. Locking into your geolocation and your Google accounts, Google will be able to find out more about your and give you personalized information. For example, it will keep you alarmed of traffic delays, your favorite sports teams, and even tell you how long it took you to get home. The Android version has has a few more features than the iOS app which will keep . For example, Android users can get pop-up notifications, but Apple users have to go into the Google Search app.

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Today, Google has announced that they will be offering the ever so popular sign-in feature that Facebook and Twitter have already integrated into today’s many websites & mobile applications. This is a big step for Google as Google+ is becoming more and more popular with users. Google has been pushing it’s Google+ visibility more and more, and has integrated it with it’s other popular widgets like Google Places. As users, we are seeing more and more of our information also appearing on Google+ automatically or Google asking us to feature more of our content on your Google+ profile.

Now, with Google+ Sign-in’s and also In-App postings, which will allow the user to feature products, companies, or whatever content they like to their Google+ profile with a push of a button all within the third-party application they are using. Google will be partnering with more and more companies as they are rolling out this feature to current partners and of course to developers with an open-source API.

Here is an example of a new company using Google’s new Sign-In feature and In-App Postings on their website and mobile App. Enjoy!

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As a twentysomething male who grew up with social media, it is hard for me to even contemplate disagreeing with Mark.  I know the significance of Facebook to today’s youth.  To suggest that their dominance in the personal data collection industry could be disputed is ridiculous.  To quote Mark again, for fear of overusing his words, “Facebook already knows you better than your spouse does.”  I agree with him.  During a recent social media overhaul of my own, I discovered personal information about myself that dates back to mid-2004, shortly after the creation of Facebook.  I felt a pang of nostalgia while I was perusing these old postings, and that was when it dawned on me, “I have been using social media long enough to be nostalgic about it.”  I did not know whether to be embarrassed or happy that I had an accurate record of the past 10 years of my life.

Remember your livejournal? Xanga? Your first blog? These sites, these digital journals and scrapbooks, are an incredibly accurate record of many of our lives.  We can trace ourselves back an entire decade and see how we’ve changed with discomforting accuracy.  The amount of data I have voluntarily offered to the the mighty search engines is significant to say the least.  At the most, I could say that my online history enables search engines to know me better than my own family.  No one can read our private posts, except for the search engines.

With that in mind, to think Facebook does not know what you are looking for before you ask seems preposterous.  Thanks to the recent announcement of “Graph Search” (the worst possible name for the product, in my opinion) we find ourselves moving from the field of organic search to the “new” field of information discovery.  A combination of our likes, comments, shares and location will be compared to the personal data of nearby people.  The results we receive have already been perused and deemed credible  by our friends with comparable interests.

The death of search does not mean the death of SEO, however.  It means the importance of your social media management skills will continue to explode.  It means that unless your SEO team is focused on generating great content and making it visible, your social media will suffer.  It means that if your business does not have the skills necessary to generate relevant, captivating content, you need a content marketing and social media strategy like you need water after a hot day of yard work.  To me, it means that we (content generators) must consistently create easy-to-read, entertaining, sharable content or fade into obscurity.

The future of search is not based on SERPs.  I do not believe that search is dead,  but I will confidently assert that Google will be crippled by Facebook’s innovative plan.  They knew they could never win with a conventional search engine, and decided to create something else entirely.  It may take 5 years, but that is the direction we are moving.  To the kids of today (i.e. your employees of tomorrow), Facebook is the internet.  Facebook is poised to strike back at the most powerful company on earth.  Search engines, meet your match.  It’s based on what you and your online connections have been giving to social media freely for years.  We all worried about what they would do with the data we gave them, and now we know.  They are using it to help us improve the quality of search by changing the nature of search itself.

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As SEOs and Inbound Marketers, it is our responsibility to understand the value Google will place on our social shares.  If social sharing is the best indicator of captivating content, we can infer that the more shares your content has, the more captivating it is.  Users have shown their habits: they share content that they like, and comment on content that piques their interest.  These two habits are what has directed Google to being placing more weight on the social sharing of content when returning search results.

Of course, extensive experimentation will be done by SEOs everywhere to determine the value of social shares.  Black-hat SEOs will come out of the woodwork to sell shares to people, and Google will figure out how to devalue Black-hat strategies as they appear.  Thus is the cycle of trial-and-error in which we are happy participants.  It’s a matter of understanding the value of the data that has been accumulated, and Google certainly understands the value of data.

The real question is: do we understand the value of the data?  Considering the sheer volume and complexity of the data available, it is a daunting, if not impossible task.  I propose that many SEOs will find their tactics ineffective if they do not adapt to incorporate extensive social sharing into their SEO best practices.  Content is King. “Going viral” has long been considered the apex of content creation.  Thanks to the study conducted by Berger & Milkman, we now have a set of measurable characteristics that will allow us to analyze and track the potential for our content to go viral.

Considering the announcement of Facebook “Graph Search”, it seems that Mark Zuckerberg picked up on what I’m talking about.  The data that Facebook has accumulated and been unwilling to share is finally being compiled into a new type of information discovery, one that is based on your personal likes and shares, and how those compare to the likes and shares other like-minded folks.

It is strange set of characteristics to analyze, certainly.  I feel, although we now have metrics to determine the viral potentiation of content, the competition to generate something viral becomes more heated.  We now also have Facebook’s Graph Search to consider.  Their data will prove invaluable to determining additional unifying characteristics of the most prevalent memes and viral content.  As we begin to cross-reference our existing information with the new stream of data from Graph Search, we will see a whole new type of ranking metrics emerge based solely out of the dynamics of social sharing.

It is our solemn duty as internet-jonesin’, SEO-loving cats to ensure that we continue to increase our ability to configure content for the best SERPs possible.  The fastest way to increase visibility is to produce your content with your readers in mind.  If your readers are bored, they will not share your content.  That means you need to put captivating content in front of them.  However, as an SEO, you might not have dual-classed as a creative writer.  No, you can’t re-roll for your secondary class. However, finding someone who dreams of writing professionally and paying them to generate your content is incredibly simple.  Most writers are not employed full-time.  You need someone to generate content full-time.  The connection is easy.  If you haven’t figured out what I am getting at, hire a writer and give someone who works hard a full-time job. Help the economy.  Real writers live to generate great content.  Real SEOs should take note.

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Some of the map trends I am deeply familiar with (I lived in a swing state during the presidential election). While others I have to admit I’ve never heard of (I was just introduced to Gangnam Style last week by a co-worker, and became perhaps the last person on earth to enjoy [endure?] the South Korean hit.)

Did you see Prometheus? Do you have an opinion on SOPA? Check out the map and see how aware you were of what the world was talking about in 2012.

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During Matt’s discussion he said that Google weighs sub-directories and sub-domains the same and it’s basically up to personal preferences. With sub-domains you have to have independent DNS zones/settings where as sub directories you don’t.

Here’s the video and I’ll post my thoughts and open discussion below…

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Answer – Google Deserves Google Places.

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