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All aboard Google Authorship, the digital journalist's SEO companion

As the wind picks up for Google Authorship's page rank implications, the oft-daunting waters of search engine optimization (SEO) seem poised to get a dash less foreboding for digital journalists.

Launched along with Google+ last summer, Google Authorship makes it possible for "content creators" to 1) verify the authorship of their content, and 2) build two-way connections between the original work they produce on the web and their Google+ profiles.

Part of the initial idea was to stop web pirates who scrape original content from other people’s pages and drop it onto their own from hoisting themselves above those whose work they have pillaged in Google’s search results. It also helped to lure media people to Google+ with the promise of richer, better-looking search result snippets (SERPs) with click through rate-enhancing potential. These include a thumbnail profile photo and links, like so:

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Author

Emma Knight's picture

Emma Knight

Date

2012-07-31 17:40

Google goes personal with "Search, plus Your World"

Google searchers who use Google+ will start seeing content from the social network in their search results, Google announced yesterday. Users will now be able to see information shared with them on Google+ in their search results along with Google+ profiles and pages related to their areas of interest. Picasa photos will also be integrated into results.

"We're transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships" says Google Fellow Amit Singhal in a blog post. The new move is described by the company as "Search, plus Your World."

Google tells you at the top of the page how many personal results have been generated for your query and you can choose to view these separately, to see them integrated into the general results, or to not see them at all. Personal results are distinguished by a specific icon and are marked as Public, Limited or Only you.

It will be possible to add users to your circles directly from the search results page, the blog post specified.

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Author

Emma Goodman's picture

Emma Goodman

Date

2012-01-11 14:28

Google+ brings out brand pages

Google+ brand pages are now live - that's right, that means that your business and brand now has official permission from Google to use its social network.

Previously, Google took the somewhat controversial move to ask brands to stop creating profiles. Google wanted brands to have pages - not profiles - because otherwise that interrupted its system of real-name-only users .

Now, however, brand pages are fully operational and you can see the shiny new promotional video on Mashable's website.

Despite calls that Google+ is dead - having missed the opportunity to capitalise on the initial furore surrounding its launch by slowly adding features, like brand pages, when Facebook already has a fully operational infrastructure - many brands, including WAN-IFRA, have jumped on the opportunity to gain exposure on another social media platform. FC Barcelona, Burberry, Fox News all have pages - but the question is has public interest in Google + waned irrevocably? Will the pages be used?

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Author

Katherine Travers

Date

2011-11-09 17:27

Blurring the boundaries between social media and news organisations: what's in it for us?

Two internet giants have made announcements this week that suggest the increasingly thin boundary between social media and the news is about to be stretched to its limit.

The first is Twitter, which has just released a new "top news" feature. The function means that when a user searches for a news-related term, they are not only shown relevant tweets, but are also given a link to one related news story. The release was first reported by Coleen Taylor at GigaOm who responded positively, calling the new function a "nice move". "Twitter has established itself as a great platform for crowdsourced information and citizen journalism, but these new features should help to make the site equally useful for finding stuff from traditional content producers such as news organizations," she wrote.

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Author

Hannah Vinter's picture

Hannah Vinter

Date

2011-11-04 18:05

Google+ opens its gates - but Facebook steals the spotlight

Google+ is once a gain a hot topic in the tech world, having unveiled more than 100 features and - finally - opened its doors to everyone, not merely the technocratic few.

Google was back where is wanted to be - at the centre of attention - once more. But only for about 20 minutes.

Facebook is not prepared to give Google a share of the limelight and will parry these blows with some PR of their own. There have been hints, tit-bits and even solid evidence of Facebook being on the verge of releasing a plethora of new features, such as social media and content sharing, a drastic profile redesign and a mobile photo-sharing app . These developments will obviously be officially revealed at the Facebook developers' conference F8 on Thursday 22 September.

No wonder that Google have had trouble holding on to the headlines.

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Author

Katherine Travers

Date

2011-09-21 18:56

Facebook launches a 'subscribe' button

Is this little button going to turn your social media strategy upside down?

The 'subscribe' button will shortly begin appearing on Facebook profiles the world over, allowing users to view status updates, designated 'public', even if they are not Facebook 'friends' with that person.

How will this affect journalists? Potentially, it could be quite significant.

The 'subscribe' button is part of Facebook's efforts to include a wider range of features in order to compete with other social networks, primarily Twitter and Google+. The Subscribe button allows users to hear from public figures and others that they do no know personally. When someone subscribes to a profile, status updates marked 'public' from that profile will appear in the newsfeed of the subscriber.

Obviously, this quick, public sharing of information in a few hundred characters makes Facebook more similar to Twitter. Particularly as all Facebook status updates can now be shared directly to twitter.

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Author

Katherine Travers

Date

2011-09-15 13:55

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Editors Weblog

The World Editors Forum is the organization within the World Association of Newspapers devoted to newspaper editors worldwide. The Editors Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org), launched in January 2004, is a WEF initiative designed to facilitate the diffusion of information relevant to newspapers and their editors.

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