Google plans to combine social networking, Google + and business enterprise with the rolling out of Google + Local. This innovative strategy is poised to create waves of change in the way we view business as consumers, and in the marketing strategies of millions of business owners.
For the first time, utilizing Google + Local, business owners will be able to virtually connect their entire product line, including services, to the potential customers who are most likely to want to buy their product. Reaching out and touching someone has never been more real in the Internet world.
On the consumer end, Google + Local promises to make the Internet experience more personal than ever before, with search results tailor-made to match with your past business interactions, including purchases, wish lists and even browsing history.
Business web site rankings will no longer be judged only on web traffic or fresh content streams. All consumer reviews posted anywhere online will be inextricably linked via Google + Local’s powerful search engine machine.
The profiling that this feature enables is a power that is both awe-inspiring and frightening at the same time. Only in the future will we be able to learn how Google plans to leverage this knowledge about the tiniest details of our purchasing proclivities.
The potential destructive danger that a database of this magnitude could pose in the wrong hands may give some Google fans pause to reconsider how much they will allow Google to follow them around the Internet.
We will all have to ask ourselves how high a price we are willing to pay for complete personalization of our browsing experience. Because we might not be able to afford it.