Google has announced the implementation of a new metric in the AdWords portfolio, that provides users with the opportunity to identify the estimated cost of bidding for top positions in search engine results pages (SERPs).

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In June of this year Google launched it’s +1 button, allowing users to circulate content among the Google community and across the web.  The following month Google reported that it had crossed 2 billion views daily, at the end of August that figure had doubled to 4 billion daily views.

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Social Media has long played an integral role in Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for many businesses, largely due to its ability to incorporate a number of key factors, augmenting the success of a site or keywords performance in Google’s listings.

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Google has announced today the acquisition of Motorola Mobility in a deal worth $12.5 billion.

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According to Mashable’s Ben Parr, Google are currently engaged in discussions with Twitter, and other social networking sites, to revive the Realtime search functionality that was disabled last month.

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New York based social consumer strategists Pivot Con published the results of their ‘Rise of Social Advertising’ study last week, and the findings indicate that the marketing industry is set to be guided by consumer behavior measured by social media platforms, enabling the development of marketing strategies and interactions with customers across a global network.

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As the launch of Google+ for all users is still eagerly anticipated by many across the globe, people already trialling the service are praising its functionalities and the services it provides, in particular it’s position as the major driving force for the social video market.

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The vast majority of people that utilise mobile technology look forward to the day when fast internet access is available anywhere and everywhere.  People are becoming more and more accustomed to being online and mobile, and more demanding when it comes to the speed of the connections available.  The only limitation is the capacity of 3G networks to cope with the demand and the coverage.

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Although Google’s new social networking site Google+ is still available to users by invitation only, according to digital marketing specialists comScore, Google’s social project has already established itself among the online global population, stacking up 20 million visitors across the world, in just it’s first three weeks:

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According to comScore’s latest study, more and more people are using online search facilities and mobile platforms in order to find relevant information about local businesses.  According to statistics published this week, comScore’s “State of Local Search” study has found that 13% of core activity on the leading search engines relates to local businesses.

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Earlier this year Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, contributed to the Google Inside AdWords blog post, and gave his insight into how best to interpret metrics for Google AdWords search positions: “many advertisers are concerned about the average position of their ads.  Though this metric can be useful, it’s easy to misinterpret”.

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Christian Oestlien, product manager for Google+ announced the impending launch of Google+ for business, via a brief video message posted on the plus.google.com site.

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It is predicted that by the end of this year, 1 out of 2 Americans will own a Smartphone.  In the United Kingdom there are the highest number of Smartphone users in Europe, with over 11 million people owning a Smartphone handset; indicating that a quarter of the population can use their mobile phone to get online and browse the web, and that number is increasing.

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Google recently launched one of their newest developments on the social networking scene Google +1, a new button which people can use to show their appreciation of websites and recommend them to your friends. One question is whether this new addition to the web will have any effect on search engine optimisation.

Very much like the Facebook ‘like’ button, it’s a way of demonstrating to your friends and acquaintances that you recommend a website. Several ‘likes’ from people who have more influence on the internet (bloggers, writers) will more than likely be counted as a vote of confidence and a almost carry the same weight as a link when making algorithm changes to their search engine.

You will have to be signed in with a Google account for your +1 vote to be counted, and if you don’t have many friends connected to your Gmail or Google Plus account then there is little chance that the +1’s that you make will have a huge effect on any results. This is one of Google largest worries – that people don’t tend to use Google for their social interactions. This is not to say that people won’t begin to move over to Google so that their E-mail, search engine and social media platform are all conveniently located together. Facebook have tried having the same effect by creating Facebook Email addresses which prevent you receiving emails from people that they aren’t friends with. The advantages of this are quite plain to see, but unless people decide to entrust their entire life to Google by giving them all information stored in their emails, all interactions within their social network and all of their search history, Facebook looks like it will continue to prosper.

Will Google +1 have any impact on SEO?

One main effect will be that Google will be in the position to add another string to their bow in terms of fighting junk emails and spam, just like Facebook. In the same way as other factors of social media marketing, a lot of users showing their appreciation for something will demonstrate to Google that your site is of good quality, relevant and deserves to be ranked high up on the search engine results. It’s almost like link building in a different but less powerful way. At the same time, I still think that links will be the determining factor when it comes to affecting rankings for websites in the coming years.

Will Google +1 have an effect on PPC?

I think that PPC adverts will end up standing out more from the others without +1 votes, thus producing a much higher CTR (click-through-rate) on average. At the same time it may also create a lesser quality of clicks on those adverts because people will be automatically drawn to the +1. Either way, I think that users will ultimately be keeping an eye out for sites with Google +1 to sway their decision.

I think that this may be a genuine and adequate attempt to go up against Facebook and achieve a social connection with search engine optimisation.