Google+ App Activity Comes To Google Desktop Search

[engine]

Today we're making this possible by bringing app activity to Google search results.

Soon, if you search for a site or app on Google.com (and that app has integrated with Google+ Sign-In app activities), you'll see popular and aggregate user activity to the right of search results. Searching for Fandango, for example, will show the top movies among Google users. And when you click on a movie, you’ll go directly to its page on Fandango.

We're rolling out this feature in desktop Search over the next few weeks, starting with a limited number of music and movie apps — including Deezer, Fandango, Flixster, Slacker Radio, Songza, SoundCloud and TuneIn — but we'll be adding more apps over time. Google+ App Activity Comes To Google Desktop Search [googleplusplatform.blogspot.co.uk]

[tedster]

The web keeps changing, and Google is trying to stay ahead of the curve.

[TheOptimizationIdiot]

Sometimes they're so far ahead it's like they don't know what we really want any more.

Personally, I'd settle for ten relevant yet diverse, non-duplicated results from the original source and a number unique sites so I can decide which best fits my needs currently, but I know that's asking them to step back to the reality of today and be a search engine rather than trying to figure out what I might want tomorrow and show that to me now so unfortunately it's not likely to happen in my opinion.

Interestingly, if they continue to try and guess what I'm going to want tomorrow and show it to me today they'll always be a bit ahead of me and not ever show me what I actually want to see again.

[lucy24]

:: after reading article forward, backward, upside-down and sideways ::

Huh?

[TheOptimizationIdiot]

They're way ahead Lucy24, don't worry about it if you don't get it.

Many of us aren't "caught up with them yet" and just plain don't get things they do like show the same business listing from review and phonebook type sites for all of the top 20 results and 26 of the top 30, except for the single result for the actual business site, because a single business in a city that's in an unrelated field has the medically related service we searched for in it's name and is in that city.

It's not them, it's us, but don't feel bad because you're not the only one confused by what they're doing. (That's because we're "living in the now" and they're way ahead of us so they know what we will want in the future and that's what they're showing us -- Sometimes they're so far ahead I think they're on a different planet, but then I realize it's me that's the issue, not them.)

Really, somehow they know at some point in time I'll want to see the reviews and yellow page type listings for a business 3,000 miles from where I am so I know the business is EPA approved to remove the paint from my bathroom that was just built 6 months ago and painted a couple months later, plus the business can even install a new toilet for me (even though I've got a new one of those to go with the paint and walls), rather than seeing the listings for a medically related service people are known to travel 1000s of miles for which is what I thought I was really searching for when I typed in the query.

The problem with Google for me is I'm so far behind and "living so much in the now" I don't know I want to see things like those reviews and yellow page results yet, but they do, because they know what I want before I do and that's what they're showing me. They're waaaaay ahead of some of us, me for sure at least.

(Honestly, sometimes I forget to switch back to Bing to search and accidentally use Google which often leaves me very confused lately, because I have no clue I why I would want to see the results they're showing me or whyTF they're showing them to me, but they're way ahead of me, so they must know I do even though I don't have a clue why and really don't think I want to see them myself.)

[TheOptimizationIdiot]

Here's an example of what I mean about being users behind:

In 2010 Google knew users would like instant previews. They even say users who use them are an astounding 5% more likely to be satisfied with a result in their announcement. (They don't say what % of users actually used previews in testing or state the margin of error for their data collection, but that's not the point and could have really detracted from the hype of introducing them): [googleblog.blogspot.com...]

The problem with previews wasn't even actually Google imo. It was Google's users being so far behind they didn't know they would like them or could be a whopping 5% more satisfied with the result they clicked if they did use previews, because even as early as 2010 Google was so far ahead of the game they knew the "5% more likely to be satisfied rate" they announced would be a "good thing" and their users would understand they were supposed to like and use the previews more as time went on.

It's not like Google totally hyped up a number of increased satisfaction and botched it or anything. Users just weren't up to speed on what they really wanted and obviously still aren't because they didn't use the sh*t.

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/websearch/AomrTzXMWDI[1-25-false]

(In all honesty, I liked the previews, because it made it so I didn't have to click on a result to not find what I was looking for or think "wow, this is what the results are like now? Glad I switched a while ago...")

[engine]

It's another move to coerce use of G+

Perhaps we'll all 'get it', or have to get it at some point.

Either way, right now it's a new plaything.

[HuskyPup]

Deezer, Fandango, Flixster, Slacker Radio, Songza, SoundCloud and TuneIn

I'm so far behind that I've not even heard of any of these!

Without looking I'm assuming films and music ... nah, thanks G but I got those covered years ago.

[aristotle]

The web keeps changing, and Google is trying to stay ahead of the curve.

There is no bigger influence on future changes in the internet than Google itself. Unfortunately, as they continue to funnel more and more traffic to a restricted group of "authority" sites, they are gradually starving small independent sites out of existence, thereby destroying the best part of the web.

[indyank]

Everytime I see such coercions to use G+, I can also see their frustration in not being able to get the users on to their G+.

[netmeg]

Well I kind of understand their thinking, it's like how I believe Star Trek is really true and couldn't even conceive of watching Battlestar Galactica because all the aliens were wrong. Because I knew Star Trek was *true*

That's how Google feels about Google.