Creating a Google Profile

I just finished creating my NEW Google Profile - because I am a Google / social tool like that - and just wanted to share some of my thoughts about it.

First off, a Google profile is a new "service / project" offering from Google where users can create their very own online profile featuring their picture, bio, contact information, photos, likes, dislikes, etc. ... essentially everything that you'd expect from an online profile. The cool thing about having one of these profiles is that Google will include them in their search results for whenever someone searches your name.

So, let's say that you have a classmate, co-worker, or significant other from the past that wants to see what you've been up to lately or wants to get in contact with you. Now, pending a Google search for your name they'll be able to do just that. In fact, in my opinion, this service becomes extremely valuable for those people who are without a website and/or personal blog as chances are they have very little exposure within the search results to begin with... even for their own name. A Google profile also provides another option for those people who choose not to be apart of social communities such as MySpace or Facebook, but yet still want to be found.

You can view my Google Profile here:

http://www.google.com/profiles/karl.ribas

And, let's not forget about small businesses. I mean really, really tiny businesses where there is little need nor desire nor income to create an actual website. A Google profile could be used to create a 1-page reference that highlights the details of their products, services and contact information. This page can then be listed on business cards and other offline marketing.

Another idea just came to me (thought: maybe I should filter these ideas before publishing). A Google profile could easily be used as a way to push "negative" search listings further down in the results. For instance, let's say a search for your name or company brings up negative exposure such as a rip-off report or complaint to the BBB... one way to minimize this sort of PR nightmare is to flood the search engines with profile pages and other relevant pages in hopes that over time they actually outrank these negative instances and bump them to page 2 or beyond. Being that a Google Profile is likely to be listed on page 1 of Google automatically, that only leaves 9 other positions to worry about.

Just my $0.02.

Labels: social-marketing