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Google Plus embedding social status updates

Ok, I was wandering about Google plus today and saw this status update;

Hmmmmm. After playing around a bit I decided to search using my user ID. And came up with this;

This is where it get’s interesting. As you can likely tell it is actually listing a Tweet, not a status update from G+. If we click a little deeper we find a tweet embedded into my G+ profile;

This becomes more remarkable as not only was that never shared on G+ but it is actually a fairly old tweet at that. This seems to be coming from FriendFeed. When I am logged in I see more including more listings from FriendFeed (where my twitter feed is plugged);

Those of course also lead to an embedded update in my Google + profile. I then tried a few other peeps such as Barry, Matt and Mike, but could not replicate it. every time;

That last one, is a tweet of Mike’s fed through FriendFeed. How about this one? It is Dazzlin Donna. This time it picked up a Search Engine People post from Google Reader;

Of course the interesting part was not really that it was embedding them. Sure, that’s odd, but it’s not what speaks to me. It is more about how Google is treating entities and the associations it was making for my profile in the social graph. Bug or not. In limited testing I’ve seen Tweets, FriendFeed pipes and Google Reader. What I can’t figure out is WHY Google seems to be doing this. I understand the HOW. It’s a mash up of the social graph elements.

I just noticed this earier today and have a real life, thus won’t be able to investigate more til later on. I just thought it was notable enough to put up and let others see what they can find or theories on what’s going on.

Post-script;

As noted in the comments it seems that this is likely some type of legacy content related to Google Buzz. Most of it that I have found actually pre-dates the launch of G+ which further lends credence to this theory. Rest assured for those wearing tin-foil accessories, this is unlikely an attempt from Google at fleshing G+ out with thin content.

Also, on the theory of Google not indexing G+ status updates, that also seems to be a misnomer as I found this when searching the title of this post;

As you can see, there is a status update from AJ Kohn (citing this post) that was indexed earlier today. So, obviously Google is still indexing them.

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17 Comments

  1. Dana Lookadoo August 3, 2011

    I just did the same inurl test for my Google+ profile, only result was profile itself. There were results a couple weeks ago, so this is definitely a change.

    However, I did some queries for a recent public post that received 4 +1s. (Wondering if QDF is active.) No SERPs, but it did bring up Ian Lurie’s Google Plus profile but not his associated post.

    The game, she keeps on changing!

  2. SNCadmin August 3, 2011

    Yea, certainly there is some odd idexation of actual G+ posts. But I am still befuddled as to why they’re showing social status updates from sites other than G+ as actual G+ pages. WTF?

  3. Jonathan Allen August 3, 2011

    My first reaction is to think that this looks like legacy stuff from Google Buzz. Did you syndicate friendfeed to Buzz? Maybe they are migrating/rolling buzz into G+?

    Not entirely sure what to make of the fact that Google seem to be indexing content from other networks as their own URLs. In an odd way, it borders on content farming!

  4. SNCadmin August 3, 2011

    Best theory I’ve heard so far Jon (aka legacy from Buzz). I am pretty sure I had FF piped in there, I’d have to check with the others I mentioned to see if they did, but that would be the most sensible explaination.

    As for content farming, that would certainly give some folks cause to be alarmed, if it weren’t for the fact that most of them seem to be older. That of course speaks as well to your theory.

  5. AJ Kohn August 3, 2011

    I’ve noted some of this as well. I was futzing around with some search operators in conjunction with Google+ and found that one of my blog posts was showing up as a Google+ Post.

    I’m not talking the snippet that I posted but the whole 4,000+ word post. WTF!?

    https://plus.google.com/115106448444522478339/posts/TGxHaMQV26E

    From the comments I know that this appeared on Buzz, where I do have my blog connected. So I guess G+ is just … adopting Buzz content.

    Visiting your social circles on Google shows just how much Google crawls.

    http://www.google.com/s2/u/0/search/social

    They’re spidering the social graph at a very high rate from what I can tell, and will even offer up potential matches so you can feed them more information.

    I’m not particularly concerned about the social graph mapping, but this wholesale adoption of content is … a bit unnerving.

  6. Jill Whalen August 3, 2011

    I was going to say it was likely from Buzz, but I see someone has mentioned that.

    Do you have your Tweets all going to Buzz? I’ve seen a lot of things where they’re integrating Buzz into G+. For instance, when you’re viewing on iPad in the mobile G+ version, at times you can suddenly be viewing stuff on Buzz!

    In addition, I was going through gmail contacts the other day and noticed that many seemed to show a G+ profile link embedded in the contact info. But when I clicked the link, I got a 404 G+ page. Happened on numerous contacts. (Not sure if that was a Buzz thing or something else.)

    I think we’ll see Buzz completely integrated into G+ shortly.

  7. Doc August 3, 2011

    I think Jon may be onto something, Dave. It sounds to me as though they just rolled Buzz stuff into the mix, without considering how it might appear in the SERPs.

    Interesting too, that they’re no longer indexing G+ posts. Makes me wonder what the next step might be.

  8. SNCadmin August 4, 2011

    @AJ, that is actually a demo of the Google social graph which has been around for more than 18 months. I’ve written about that numerous times. But the bit about that post is interesting as it is post-launch of G+.

    @Jill – I had a look at most certainly I do have FF and Reader piped through my G Buzz acct. As for my contacts, I also noticed a bunch of them had profile links (old G profiles) but of the 1/2 dozen I checked, they redirected to their G+ profiles.

    I would agree that Buzz is likely to be rolled into G+ in short order.

  9. Michael Martinez August 4, 2011

    Damn, Dave, there were so many screen captures in that post I just jumped down here to the comment box.

    What’s the bottom line?

  10. SNCadmin August 4, 2011

    lol

    Searched INURL for G+ profile ID

    Found a bunch of embedded social status updates (from other sites) and even blog posts. (embedded as in G+ created a page for them)

    Not entirely sure, but seems it is creating these pages from posts in Buzz. (have a life, haven’t played around with operators more)

    Tin foil peeps might call it thin content. I am merely one interested in the workings of the social graph (and behavioural metrics). Nothing earth shaking here, just a public ‘hmmmmm’ on a Wed afternoon

    That work better?

  11. Michael Martinez August 8, 2011

    “Google Buzz? Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Buzz. I thought you was dead.”

    “People keep telling me I’m dead. I’m going to shoot the next man who says that.”
    –Big Buzz

  12. jump program August 11, 2011

    In an interesting update, the single site crushed by Panda has made a come-back, and only a little over a month. I can say definitively that I pulled from the depths of hell. It did take a new platform, a new architecture, and all-new content, but it can be done.

  13. seomaster440 August 12, 2011

    Promoting google+ votes is becoming a very hot business. Using these types of services could have negative or positive affects on SEO.
    We just have to see how google treats them. Another place to buy google plus votes is bulkones.com
    Will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next few months.

  14. Guest September 9, 2011

    we see google+ votes is one of the top social stuff but here is also many site like that gplusvotes.com now its time to see their activities and how much they will satisfy us with their performance. will come here to see your reply, thanks.

  15. myplusbluddies.com November 8, 2011

    Google+ really a popular thread today.Its create challenges with other social media like facebook etc.
    I am also a user of google+.Now a day every websites google+ likes are also most popular like facebook likes. Make

    new friends and connect your friends on google+.

  16. Prince December 11, 2011

    The best way to find instant results on Google+ using the best Google Plus search engine pluserize.com

  17. Mike Cole December 4, 2012

    Actually that looks good, it is not displaying every profile but have to include the Google+ profile authorship code in the website. It is some time Good when we have more number of followers it is garbing attention from the searcher to visit our website

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