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Welcome to OMReport by Andre Alpar your interview focus podcast on topics from
online marketing to internet startups
>> ANDRE: Hi Ade, its great to have you here.
>> ADE: Nice to be here!
I can't pronounce your last name, so I like to ask you
please pronounce your last name.
Its O-***-neye.
Sounds amazing! I wont try to say it. You are from Google: So what is
your role within Google? How can you explain, what you are doing -
besides taking pictures all the time in the conference.
I work on GooglePlus. I'm a Developer Advocate. That means I explain how
people, specifically developers, can use GooglePlus to make their products
better. How can they use our platform to make their products better for
their users.
When you say developers, you don't mean your developers in Google,
but outside developers?
Exactly.
For example, there is a functionality within GooglePlus and then you teach
them about it and they can figure out whether it does make sense for their
product to integrate or not.
You just showed me these great functionalities with auto backup, where you
guys try to figure out where you can make animated GIFs out of several
pictures somebody took or try to pick out the highlights of a large
collection of photos – how does that fit with your job? Is that some
of the stuff you teach people what GooglePlus can do? Is that part of it?
How does it work together.
Part of it is understanding the vision behind GooglePlus - there is the
consumer product and making the experience really great for users, which is
what makes the platform so valuable to developers. The platform is
so valuable because of the functionality they can have and for the users
for the usage they have. So, part of my job is understanding what is great
about our products, so that, when people use the platform, they use it
in ways it will makes sense for users of the products.
For example, GooglePlus is really heavily focused on photography.
And photographers have been one of the first groups to really adopt it.
But the funny thing is, once the photographers adopt the products
and they start sharing photos, they start wanting the apps,
the tools they use, to use the platform. Because if I'm going to share
something from a photo app, I will share it to GooglePlus. If I'm really
into music – and again, music is another group of people that really
adopted GooglePlus – if I'm on SoundCloud and I'm doing mixes, I'm doing
a podcast on SoundCloud, I want to share that to the stream. I want to
share it to the GooglePlus Stream in the iOS-App, the Android-App
- which you can do with SoundCloud. And I work with them on that.
So it becomes... you are doing something with the platform, because the users
of the product demand the integration, or they feel the integration would
have value.
So its like the activities I'm doing anywhere, you want to bring them
to the platform. Or anything that fascinates me should have a second life
on the platform?
Exactly
How does this fit with everything Google does for me? For me, GooglePlus -
I mean, I'm coming from a Search Marketer perspective - so for me GooglePlus
is where Google aggregates data about people so you can do best
what you earn the money with, which is serving ads. Because if you learn
more about me, because I use GooglePlus, then you learn about what
fascinates me, you can see the automated tags that already figured out these
are the topics he cares about, he talks about, he comments on. Then you know
what adds might be the right ones to serve to me that will be less
disturbing, because they are already customed to my needs. So, that is what,
from a Search Marketer perspective, is interesting about GooglePlus. But then
again, what you are talking about is... totally different. How does that fit
together?
I know what you mean. I think, you have to start at the beginning: Googles
mission is organizing the worlds information. That's not just web pages.
That includes the photos you take. The fact that I take about a thousand
photos every few month or so - its great. But then, when I want to find the
one photo of those trees in Berlin and I cant find it – That's the kind of
problem Google should solve. And with GooglePlus and the semantic search
technology we have, I can actually take a photo and then six month later
say: „Show me photos of sunrises in Berlin” or “Autumn in Berlin” and it
will show me the photo I had in mind. That's really powerful and valuable.
Where GooglePlus comes in, is more a way of taking all the things Google
already does and making them better by bringing in things like your Social
Graph by letting you share a place with people or share a review with the
right people or, when you take a photo and you found that photo of the trees
in Berlin, sharing that with people. Or things like being able to, let's
say, when I'm creating this review and it's great, and let's say, I'm famous
and I write a review about this restaurant, about how great it is. As the
restaurant, as the publisher of the restaurant's website, what I would like
to go to do is to take that endorsement by somebody famous and embed it in
my website – what you can do with GooglePlus. Or being able to take the
conversation that happened around some piece of content, maybe a video, and
use GooglePlus to give you better quality comments on YouTube. And then
maybe embed that on your website. So there are all these places where you
use Google and we think GooglePlus can make them better. And that includes
the experiences for users, for publishers, for developers, for advertisers.
So, how do you think is the progression of GooglePlus? How does it differ,
when you talk to developers and when you talk to marketers? Because here it
is obviously only marketing guys. So, they are like... are these like two
groups of interest. Whats the common ground and how do they differ?
So, I think, again, we go back to history. One of the reasons Google was
distinct from all the other search engines that existed, was that Google was
the first one that did a good job in balancing the interests of the people
searching, the person buying the adverts and the search engine. Because if
the top result was just available to purchase and wasn't relevant, then you
as searcher won't search there again, you as the advertiser won't advertize
there again, because the users that clicked through didn't get a good
experience. And what we did with the way we did auctions around advertizing
was to actually find the best advert for the person that is searching. So,
if I'm looking to do “iPod repairs in East London” and the first advert is
from someone that does iPod repairs in East London and I click through, I'm
very happy. And I would come back. So, that is what we have always done. And
so, when it comes to the GooglePlus platform, Marketers want campaigns
that have measurable Return on Investment. So, one of the things we're trying
to do with GooglePlus is to give you metrics, give you the analytics,
give you tools that achieve this.
But this is, I mean, you can see some stuff in Google Analytics, but it
feels like just a start.
We've just really begun. There is a lot of data being exposed now in
Analytics. There are tools being exposed in the GooglePlus Insights for
local pages. So, when I did my talk, I focused a lot on what happens, if you
are a local restaurant.
Do you actually need a website, still? Or could you just have a GooglePlus
page and direct your URL straight to the GooglePlus page?
Well, I am a big believer in owning your own website. But using social to
enrich and enhance it. So if you're an restaurant and this is your website
and your website is maybe very fancy, but users, who just want your phone
number - they are searching Google and they want your phone number. The
GooglePlus place page for your site or the knowledge panel on the right site
that has your phone number is a great result. The user may never go to your
website, because the phone number is there, but they can call you and book a
reservation. That's great. If they then walk into your shop or restaurant,
they pull out their phone and Google now shows them a card with your
restaurant then and they click on it and go to Maps...
I can put a card in? At the restaurant? Not yet.
So, what they can do, when they search for you, is they find your GooglePlus
local page, that's more like the service of Google now. And then: “Oh, yes.
That's the one I was trying to go to.” It's that kind of interaction, where
the website links to your GooglePlus local page, which connects to your
YouTube Channel, which then shows what your restaurant is like and gives
them a much more full experience than your website.
I wonder, if I should... I mean, if I'm a restaurant owner and I know people
are interested in my Indian restaurant straight in the middle of Berlin and
when they visit my website I can put a remarketing pixel and then try to
remind them every second day: “You can have lunch with us again.” But if
they visit my GooglePlus page I can't do any re-marketing campaigns. Were
you thinking about that or were you more...
Well, did you think about, why are you are re-marketing and how to make your
re-marketing useful to users? You are re-marketing, because you want to keep
them engaged with you. You want them to be aware of what you do.
Or just remind them: “You remember, you where at my place. You really liked
it. Come again.“
But if you do that every two days it then becomes annoying. And then you
just have changed the sentiment about your brand. However, if you have a
GooglePlus local page and you claim it, you can post interesting content.
So, maybe they are passionately interested in India, in the history of
India, but are not going to want to be reminded by your restaurant every two
days. But maybe you post recipes every couple of days or you post a photo of
your kind of food or you post videos...
I could push that via re-marketing, too.
You push that, but it's annoying and they won't opt-in. But if they follow
your page, because they care about your brand, and you post every couple of
days something interesting and relevant and shareable – Great! It's claimed,
they got permission for it. So, the cool kids call this “Permission
Marketing”. It is the idea that you are pushing content to the user the user
wants. You're reminding them you exist and you are valuable and you are
respectful of their attention.
But you wouldn't post a recipe on your website and then say at GooglePlus
“Hey, we have a new recipe online! Visit us over, if you want to see the
Or you post a photo of the recipe. That will link to your website. And they
see it.
And then hope that people will opt-in.
You want people to opt-in. Because if they opt-in, its a stronger bond. The
person, who opts-in sees your messages not as spam or as marketing, but as
valuable information from a valuable brand.
Do you see that happening, really, on the typical Google local entry?
Because the average restaurants, they are not super internet agile. It's
not like they feel as digital natives.
That's exactly, why its going more useful for them. Because for them,
editing their website is a big burden. The challenge involved in actually
writing HTML or paying someone to write HTML means it's something that they
do rarely. Whereas typing: “Hey, we just came back from our holidays to this
place and we have this new recipe we learned on our holiday.” That's five
minutes work. Taking your phone out, taking a photo of the recipe you just
made... five minutes work. 15 minutes - you just posted some content. If you
have a local restaurant, you have 200 followers, who all live locally, and
you have just - your shop's being closed during the holidays, you came back,
you got a new recipe. If my local restaurant is saying: “We got a new recipe
for Tiramisu, because we just came back from Italy”, I'm gonna visit.
Sounds true. Sounds appealing.
What would you suggest, or - i'm not sure, if this is a proper question to
ask, but if people have a claimed Facebook page and a claimed GooglePlus
page, should they push the same content. I mean, some people might use
Facebook rather than GooglePlus. So, should I try push the same content or
try different pieces of content. What are your points on that? Are the users
of the two platforms totally different?
The experiences is that it's different. Most people start with posting the
same things to both places, because it's easy. Over time the kinds of
engagement they get differ. The kinds of posts they get engagement on
GooglePlus are very different to the kinds of things they get engagement on
Facebook. So, on Plus, for example, if it's visual it does really well. We
have a first class visual experience. We have a lot of great photographers
using the product. On your GooglePlus page you will see people, who have
visited your restaurant or your shop, uploading photos they took. They will
be showing up in Maps, you'll be discovering them through Search. So, that
content, if you get the Knowledge Panel triggering, it will show your recent
posts. So, if the kinds of things you are posting are relevant and engaging
and say: “Hey, we have a discount on this thing this week!” or “Hey, our
chef just got married!”, it means that when people come to your shop,
because they found you from search, clicked on the recent posts by your chef
getting married and said “Hey, congratulations on your wedding”.
How will all play out with the Google Knowledge Graph inserts, when
GooglePlus pages are available that could meet the Search? Because
especially with restaurants, which you like to take as an example, there
are so many, like for example, I know several restaurants in Berlin that are
Italian and their names sound confusingly similar. How would you try to
figure out that. Or would you rather not show the Google Knowledge Graph
insert or show several of them and then the people should pick, just like
with search results?
If there are five restaurants called...
...Milano...
...Milano, for instances, but I've been to two and you've been to one. The
ones I've been to are probably more important to me. The ones you've been
to, if we are connected in GooglePlus, are probably also more important to
me. If I've been to a restaurant, I've checked into that restaurant, I
uploaded photos of that restaurant and I'm following that restaurant.
That's very, very obvious.
You know, that may be not the most famous one, it may not be most popular
one, it may not even be the one that is the nearest to me right now, but
that's the one I want. So, every time I come to Berlin, and I search for
restaurants, “La Parrilla” comes up. It's a very nice Argentinian steak
restaurant. I've been there several times, I uploads lots of Photos there...
Can I suggest a different steak restaurant to you for your next visit?
I should point out “La Parrilla” is also important to me, because first time
we went there, there was a friend, who died shortly afterwards, so it has
sentimental value, too. And that attachment means I want to come back. It's
the one I...
It's a place to remember.
Exactly. So, there may be others, they may be better, but I dont have the
affinity with them, I'm not following them in GooglePlus.
So, it will be rather a tool to remember than a tool to discover, if you say
it that way. Because you can not do both at once.
We can actually do this. At Google Search one of the things we are really
good at is diversity. Showing different kinds of search results in the same
thing and not just a pool of links, but segmenting them properly. So, that
you can say, there is a restaurant we show you, because you have gone there
before. Here is a restaurant we are showing you, because it is similar to
ones you have been to before. Here is a restaurant we are showing you,
because people, who have similar tastes than you like this restaurant. And
here is a restaurant we are showing you, because it is new.
So we can do all of that in the search results.
And then just mix and try what happens and what works best for the group.
And then of course, if you are searching, and we show you a restaurant
that's been reviewed by a fan of yours or by somebody famous, who...
Who I follow?
Exactly. Suddenly, it is making search results better. And if you don't like
any of that, that's okay, because these are suggestions. The idea is, like,
Google is an assistant. It's differential. Let's say: “Here are some things
that might be helpful”.
And then you pick.
Exactly.
Thanks so much for your time and for the visit here in Berlin.
And I hopefully will have an animated GIF of you that I will show you later.
And I'm really curious to see, if it works!