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Friday, October 7th, 2011
Google has announced that it has implemented a number of new improvements to its application programming interface (API) for Google+, according to an article published by ZDNet UK.
Previously unveiled last month (September), the API for Google+ now has the ability to search the social network for public posts, as well as other new features that will allow applications to discover who has re-shared or +1′d posts.
The API feature, which can also scan comments and public profile information, could prove to be useful in future social media marketing initiatives.
In a post published on the official Google Code blog, software engineer Jordanna Chord commented on the improvements.
She wrote earlier this week: “Thank you to all of you who tried out our first Google+ API release and let us know how you were using it. And thank you also to those of you who asked for more.
“In the spirit of releasing early and often, today we’ve released some of the new features that your requested,” Chord finished.
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Tags: API, Google
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
As we said in Part 1 a while ago, businesses were not at that time permitted on Google + but that was no reason not to start thinking about how you will use it once the business applications open up.
19th September NEWSFLASH – Google+ is now wide open to everyone!!
Google+ is likely to advance quickly once the basics are resolved and Google announced today that they had passed 100 major changes to G+ which had been requested or were on the G+ team wishlist. Having a user base of at least 10 million within only a few weeks, even as a closed beta, the feedback came thick and fast for the development team. In addition, even a quick look at the different applications and services that Google can add on and integrate within G+ puts it considerably ahead of the vast majority of the competition, and that work has been ongoing throughout the summer.
Just a quick look at this page of Google Products, let alone the many Google Labs gives you an idea of how broad the Google church now is and where G+ might be going.
So, the integration of multiple different products inside Google +, or easily accessible from within G+, does indicate that for some G+ could be the portal from which all things happen. However, for others, change is to be avoided at all costs, and if there is a tool which works for you then it is unlikely that you will change it in a hurry.
What this means for businesses is that Google+ may well become yet another place in which you need to seek out your target audience, but not everyone will be using it, so you will still need to target your audience using the applications which they prefer. This could be Facebook, Twitter, Quora, LinkedIn etc.
It is also possible though that just as Tweetdeck has become the most popular Twitter app, third party developers will help to integrate existing tools with G+. Facebook has made this very difficult except with Connect, because the whole arena is closed off and everyone wanting to develop for Facebook must do so inside Facebook. Google is unlikely to make the same mistake, and the API for G+ is now available which means that many of the integration tools which were available previously will likely be superseded by apps developed within the API.
Will G+ take off as a replacement for Facebook for businesses? Right now, as Facebook also announce many changes, the likelihood is that as a business you will need to market to more than just one social network. But G+ now offers functionality for your business, rather than just as a marketing tool, that you would do well to look at. Shortly, we will be blogging about Hangouts and the changes announced this week that could save a fortune in producing content, collaboration, and exciting ways to engage with your customers.
Tags: API, business, g+, Google, google plus, tools
Posted in Blog, Google, Small Business Resources, Social Media
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Saturday, June 25th, 2011
Part 2 of the public chat with Empire Avenue’s DUPS on Friday evening (GMT)….To continue…..
As of yesterday the public chats were turned off, with new chats being enabled within the special interest communities – of which there are already hundreds, ranging from geographic regions and cities through to business related forums such as the CEO Club and SEO and Social media communities. And then there are communities of interest such as Tomato Lovers, Daddy Bloggers, Harry Potter and gaming communities.
DUPS and his team are determined to increase the value of the network within Eav, and there will be a strong focus on making the communities increasingly more useful as an integral part of Eav over the coming months. Mention was made of “trending communities” so that people could see which were most active, as well as much more functionality within the chat, such as Thumbs Up, links and photos showing as previews and thumbnails, etc.
There was some discussion of integrating Disqus into the site, which seemed to meet with approval.
The question of spam was covered because obviously a website such as Eav has managed to already attract people for whom ‘netiquette’ is an unknown word. Until the last few days, there was one chat called “Buy Me” in which all shameless promotion and spam was permitted. The general feeling is that there should be at the least a similar ‘overflow’ system to keep these people from harrassing genuine Eavers with their constant “Buy Me” shouts etc. One user has specifically set up a new Buy Me community to try to cater for this problem.
Another question which was asked was when might there be a Blackberry app and this is being looked into by the community now, rather than the developers. Apparently there are some issues to resolve but anyone who wishes to help develop the app should offer help in the communities. Ditto with Android, but this seems to raise less issues.
The user community has already developed a multitude of toolbars and other helpful solutions for shareholders wishing to quickly see ROI, stocks etc and DUPS is encouraging that, as well as the proliferation of Facebook groups such as #TeamZen and #SocialEmpire who help out new users, suggest hot tips, and relieve some of the pressure for support from the developers. There are also an army of volunteer moderators who do a quite superb job at keeping the community in order.
There is an API for anyone wanting to access that so undoubtedly the coming months will see far more exciting new additions from the community itself as well as from the devs.
The chat was fast-paced and it may be that there were other topics discussed which are not mentioned here. If you were one of those in the chat, please do pitch in with any contributions.
The end of the chat was interspersed with some clues about the Secret Awards such as the TOM and the DUPS that can be found if you search hard enough, but for some of us that left it about as clear as mud what we are to do to achieve them! There was also once again mention of a squirrel hunt – some people have been on Eav for a year now and this is obviously an in joke….can anyone clear up what exactly the persecution of squirrels is about, please?!
Tags: achievements, android, API, app, awards, blackberry, buy me, chat, community, disqus, dups, eav, empire avenue, marketing, secret squirrel, Social Media, spam, thumbs up, tom, trending
Posted in Blog, Social Media
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
Search engine marketers can now access far more hard data from Google Analytics after the API was opened up today. What this means to search engine marketers is being able to use the analytics data in far more creative ways, to integrate it with existing products to provide data for clients, and to create new applications or mashups that deliver data in more meaningful ways.
I think we will see a whole host of new data made available from case studies and so on over the coming months as search engine marketers exercise their coding skills to produce white label apps, dashboards and widgets.
Tags: API, Google, Web Analytics
Posted in Google, SEM Industry, Web Analytics
