Google is poised to make its search function more social as it experiments with a new format for search results that could revolutionize the way people both use and view the company's search engine and associated results.
While still in its infancy, Google is trying a new approach to its search engine that promises to make it more social in nature, as businesses and celebrities will be able to post directly to search results, increasing those posts' visibility and turning the search into a faux-Twitter feed.
Despite not being as interactive as Twitter or another social networking site, it still provides applicable entities a more prominent place on the Web. It does share one feature with these social networking sites which would be integral to its success. The posts are in real-time, meaning that posters can directly communicate with each other.
When someone makes such a post, it will turn up in Google search results alongside their name. Google first started rolling out this feature last month for presidential candidates, allowing them to create debate-related posts. The tool would then curate those long posts to highlight candidates' stances on key issues such as immigration or gun control. These socially-enhanced search results would be strikingly similar to Google's "cards" on mobile platforms, which users can swipe, click or tap, depending on what they want to do with the information.
"This is an experimental search feature we are testing, but it is not tied to Google+," a Google spokesperson said. "We are currently experimenting with presidential candidates and just started with some SMBs for a select pilot period."
Google is now reportedly extending these features to small businesses and could potentially offer them to celebrities and bigger-name brands in the future. The small business aspect was first discovered by search expert Mike Blumenthal, who was searching for engagement ring stores in Buffalo, N.Y., only to come across an advertisement post from a local jewelry store. Clicking on one of these posts, which are curated into a Twitter feed-like stream of ads, opens up a standard webpage full with text and photos to describe a product.
This scheme was initially rumored to be called Google Posts, putting it under the same initiative launched to coincide with the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, but a Google representative has revealed that this is not the case. The small business aspect is its own platform, but it doesn't have a name yet.
It remains to be seen when this experimental feature will reach a more final, polished stage, but it will be interesting to see how it turns out, considering that Google already allows brands to publish content using Google+.
