What Impact Will Google Now Have For Small Businesses?

[Travis Van Slooten]

I'm sure you've all read about Google Now and many of you have probably experienced it on your Android device - assuming of course you're running Jelly Bean, the latest version of Android.

I think this Google feature/service is going to be huge and have a significant impact for small businesses. Imagine a service that can anticipate what you're going to want and then display it on your device. That is what Google Now does.

This is just one other reason to make sure EVERY business owner has a Google+ Local page. It probably helps to be active on Google+ as well as I'm sure the social signals there play a part as to what businesses show up.

Google Now just came out with more categories so now even more businesses will get exposure through this service:

Google Now Gains More Content Categories Info Cards

Travis Van Slooten

 

[Linda Buquet]

Great share Travis!

I don't keep up with mobile stuff as much as I should because my brain is just indundated with all the G+L and Local SEO stuff I'm trying to help folks with.

BUT I want to focus more on mobile here in the forum because now mobile of course =s local!
So need to start relying on you guys more to surface and share stuff like this.

So this great! So exciting to see the community start jumping in to share great content like this. THANK YOU TRAVIS!

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Thanks Linda. Ya, I'm just so intrigued by the whole mobile market. I'm curating some of the best posts on mobile marketing and local SEO for mobile marketing. You can see my list so far here:

Mobile Marketing Mobile Websites

I add to it daily...or at least as often as I can find really good posts on the topic.

Travis Van Slooten

 

[Linda Buquet]

Travis, here's a really good article that just came out at Search Engine Land.

Google Now Moving Well Beyond ?Search? With Mobile Assistant

Google Now and improved Voice Search, on Android and the new iOS Google search app, are central to that new experience. (Danny wrote a piece comparing Siri and the Google iOS app for the iPhone last week.) Google Now turns the cliche ?answers not links? from a marketing slogan into something real.

Google Voice Search + Google Now together with Siri hold profound implications for the future of ?mobile search.? Siri and, increasingly, Google Voice Search + Google Now are conditioning mobile users to interact with smartphones in very different ways than how people have historically searched on the PC. Mobile or virtual assistant is the new metaphor.

 

[nathangould]

This whole personal assistant thing is something that is really cool but keep in mind there are two very different strategies here.

Google has a mindset of data, without having a personal conversation to mess things up. Apple is more built on the companion idea, and therefor the responses that Siri has become famous for. See it like Star Wars vs. Star Trek. In Star Trek, it was "Computer do this, computer do that" and so it would be. With Star Wars though you get a character like C3PO who will give the information, but does so with personality. Is there a right way or a wrong way? Probably not.

Also with Apple, now that they are using Yelp listings as their main source of listings, local search may be different than on Android (inside of Siri at least). It's really hard to say where this is going to go, but even now, the fact that its taking data from your emails for confirmations on plane tickets, hotel reservations, package tracking, etc. then serving it up to you as a notification is big. I see Google doing a big push towards knowing what your interested in and getting that to you based on whats around you right now. Going as far as notifying you of interesting places to go. (which they've already done).

Just my two cents.

 

[MiriamEllis]

Travis...I really appreciate you sharing this. Like Linda, I wish I was more 'up' on mobile, but I'm just not. It's great you started this thread.