Google+ is still seeing a low turnout in terms of usage, but as far as the marketers and advertises are concerned, it seems to be of great help. Notably, out of the top 100 brands from all over the world, 77 already have a Google+ page till now. Last moth the count was 61, which has increased by 16 now. Even the fans, adding these pages to Circles has grown 50 percent in a month. The count is small now, that is 222,000 fans combined, according to BrightEdge. But considering the fact that Google+ pages are new to the world of techies, the count is really good.
BrightEdge revealed that a review was noted of the top 100 brands from all over the world and a comparison was made between their Facebook pages and Google+ pages. The comparison showed that there are almost 300 million fans liking a Facebook page of a brand, against 148,000 who have added the same brands in their Google+ Circles. But to compare them in this respect would be wrong, as Google+ pages are just a month old, as compared to Facebook pages, which have been around for a couple of years now. Moreover, the user count for the same even differs majorly.
Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge, wrote in a statement, “Google is embedding their popular new product with its dominant search marketing position, replicating the tie between social and search channels, just as Facebook’s Open Graph tied sites and search together earlier this year, blurring the lines between social and search engagement.” He added, “Top 100 brands are realizing that they now need to address both channels. Now the real work begins, if they want to extend their social presence on the Web from Facebook to the new Google+.”
From a different prospective, few other views were even there to note, as BrightEdge Marketing VP Brad Mattick told Mashable he believes that “blurring the lines between G+ and search results parallels Microsoft’s inclusion of the Internet Explorer browser in its Windows OS in the 1990s.” While Senators Herb Cole and Mike Lee told V3 , “While we take no position on the ultimate legality of Google’s practices under the anti-trust laws and the FTC Act, we believe these concerns warrant a thorough investigation by the FTC.”
The latter views seem to be true to a great extent and viable too. Reason for the same is that as Google+ pages are showing up in the Search Results, the search engine giant is indirectly urging other marketers to come up with a Google+ Page. There has been some speculation that this particular move could lead to more anti-trust woes for Google.
On the other hand, those users who surf the new via Google search, will be bound to look at these Google+ pages. It would serve two purposes simultaneously. Firstly, the users will find Google+ page before the other results. Secondly, there is always a possibility that users will look into the Google+ pages too and thus will be drawn to be active on Google+.
Google, thus might have to rework its scheme and modify a number of factors.
For those, who are interested in viewing the report, the SocialShare Google+ 12-2011 report is available to download in its entirety from BrightEdge Resources.