Articles in The 'Google’s Universal Search' Tag

You Probably ARE a Social Media User!

by Marni Weinberg

A friend of mine was recently looking for a new workout routine. She went to Google and typed in the phrase leg workout video. The very first organic result was a YouTube video which she found to be very useful. She particularly enjoyed the user reviews written about the video and even wrote one of her own. As she was sharing this information with me, I found it interesting (but not at all a surprise) that the video ranked #1; higher than any other natural search results. Google’s Universal Search, which was first rolled out in 2007, displays not only website results, but also videos, images, etc. Basically, if a video is properly tagged with relevant keywords, there is a good chance the video will trump an organic website result.

Another friend of mine is getting ready to take a cruise vacation with her family. She also went online, but chose Yahoo to research shore excursions. She discovered a travel forum where fellow vacationers’ were blogging about their travel experiences. Before she knew it, she had been online for over an hour, collaborating with people on the travel forum. She gained helpful insights that will save her both time and money and promised to write about her own travel experience.

Both of the above examples prove the fact that even if you think you’re not a social media user, the fact is that in one way or another, you probably are. You don’t need a Facebook page, nor have followers on Twitter to engage in Social Media. Social Media, defined by wikipedia as online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies, is being used by almost everyone, in one way or another. Collaborative content is all over the internet and even if you aren’t looking, you will find it or rather, it will find you!