Google Instant; impact on online content and PR

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This morning I read a really thought provoking article on The Guardian website about Google Instant. The article is essentially all about how the internet is making our attention spans shorter and shorter.

For those of you who don’t know, Google Instant is a new addition to internet search technology that shows results below the search window as you type. The aim is to reduce the time spent searching for what you’re looking for, often without the need to even press ‘enter’ to bring up the right results. And yes, you can turn it off if you so choose.

For the rest of the blog post, please head over to Bullet Points.

Let battle commence: Facebook vs Google about to get serious

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There is an interesting guest post on Social Media news site Mashable about the ‘billion dollar battle’ between Facebook and Google to be your default social profile.

It highlights how the talk around location based services and group purchasing tools hasn’t yet gone mainstream, despite the hype. The real questions are whether Google Buzz and Wave are going to reach their much vaunted potential and if social commerce (the ability to buy ‘direct’ from within Facebook) is the way forward for retailers. Check out sites like Payvment to see what this is all about.

The article also looks at the phenomenon of virtual gifts. I have never personally given a virtual gift as I think they are nonsensical; however, other people clearly disagree as there is apparently a $1 billion market in the US alone.

Both Google and Facebook are moving towards ‘doing an Amazon’ and making it easier and quicker to move to point of purchase when looking at sites that have jumped on the social commerce bandwagon by accepting integration with the internet’s two biggest players.

The contributor asks who will you choose, which is an interesting question. But I want to know whether you are happy having one default browser that essentially follows you around the web, eventually giving almost omnipotent influence over your web lives? It appears it will be really useful and make purchasing quicker and having two companies competing will hopefully mean better offerings for the wider world.