CorpComms Magazine

The last week has been very interesting for someone who's not conducting web searches but who works in social communications. The launch of Google+ has been met with predictable buzz and people like me will have spent many hundreds or thousands of hours playing with it over the last few days in order to try and suss it out. But while I'm not writing this to discuss Google+ (you can read my initial take on that here should you so wish), the newest and shiniest social platform has certainly impacted my #NoSearch project.

There are several huge advantages that Google has when it comes to gaining traction for Google+ (the Chrome browser, Gmail and, above all, the Android OS to name but three), but one that's being overlooked by most at present is search itself. Search is Google's heartland and there are reports that Google+ profiles are already showing prominently in the SERPs. And considering that Google holds around 80% of the search market, this has massive implications. It's something I want to investigate more and get to grips with. And yet I can't...

As far as I'm concerned, Google profiles suddenly jumping to the top of the search engines for those lucky enough to have a Google+ account is mere speculation. I can't even tell you whether the +1 button now makes any sense in the SERPs. And that's hugely frustrating. Of all the times that Google could launch its most exciting development in years, it would be smack bang in the middle of an experiment that intends to find out whether we can go without search engines.

It leads nicely to an area of thinking that I've been toying with since I started this; that of Google being akin to a form of 'cult'. One of the things that defines a cult is the blind faith and unquestioning belief of its members. And when you carry out a Google search, do you not exhibit such traits? Do you consciously think about your search, or do you just do it? And 0.25 seconds later when you get the results, do you ever stop to question whether what you're seeing really is the best that the internet has to offer on the subject, or whether the SERPs have been gamed by SEO professionals? Or do you just trust in them 100%?

I'm a huge fan of Google as a company, but #NoSearch is making me realise just how much power and influence it has in the way we perceive the world around us. And if Google+ catches the public imagination when it comes out of field trial, it'll have even more so.

Read more about the launch of the #NoSearch project

Paul Sutton is head of social communications at BOTTLE. Follow his experiment on the #NoSearch blog, help him out on Twitter or Quora, and check back here every Tuesday for an update.

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