Google I/O 2012 was an incredible event that features over 30 hours of video footage that you can watch on YouTube. This is a description of the event taken directly from the Google I/O 2012 developers website:
“Learn the tech world's latest web, mobile and social breakthroughs and meet the developers who are turning them into tomorrow's startups. Keep yourself and your team driving innovation at Google I/O, which returns to San Francisco's Moscone Center from June 27th – 29th, 2012.”
I know what you're thinking – if this event is aimed at developers, what does that have to do with you and me? Ok, I admit that a lot of the information is way over my head and it probably will be for most bloggers like myself. Lucky us, I am very fortunate to have Chris Lang in my circles on Google+. Chris is a leader and top expert in the area of all things related to Google and specifically Google+ training for business. He hosted a + Hangout on Air to recap the Google I/O 2012 event and point out some key takeaways and forecasts that will benefit bloggers, small business owners and webmasters. This is a summary of what you can learn from Chris and his distinguished guest panel.
Google I/O 2012 Marketing Takeaways – Chris is joined by 3 panelists
Ronnie Bincer from Video Leads Online – Ronnie is and Internet Marketing Consultant, widely known for Video SEO, Google+ Tips and small business coaching. He has several successful YouTube channels including Video Leads Online and Use My Droid. Ronnie is a pioneer in the area of integrating YouTube videos, Google+ and Google+ Hangouts into a successful online marketing portfolio.
Shira Gal from Internet Marketing Duru – Shira is a best selling author, SEO consultant and coach. She also specializes in helping authors self-publish on Amazon Kindle. Be sure to check out Shira's YouTube video on How To Embed a Google Drive Video on Your WordPress Blog (she has tons more goodies on YouTube and her blog as well).
Steven Vargas is a Chicago Wedding Videographer, filmmaker and YouTuber. His latest film, Life the Chicago Way is a crowd-sourced video documentary based on how Chicago residents lived through the blizzard of 2011.
My Favorite Highlights from the Google I/O 2012 Marketing Takeaway Video
New Feature introduced: Google+ Events
This is one of the most exciting features introduced during Google I/O 2012. Events allows us to invite people to an offline or online event (like a Hangout) and when the user accepts, it will be immediately added to their Google Calendar. Try to imagine Facebook events on steroids. You can also invite anyone that you have an email address for (which includes all of your AWeber and RSS email subscribers). Embed a teaser video into the invitation and use Google Moderator to let attendees ask questions or make requests prior to the event. You and your invitees can upload images to the invitation that further engage your audience and get their attention. I like how in the video Chris says, “Think coupons”! Great idea for local bricks and mortar businesses but I'm sure internet marketers will come up with some creative uses for coupon events as well.
Google apps, Gmail and Google Hangouts for collaboration in education
Google has expanded the use of Google apps to over 60 of the top colleges in the U.S. and they are working with teachers to enhance functionality and the use of Google Drive to bring more educational instructions into the cloud. This saves money and allows students and teachers to connect with small businesses and get access to more real-world training.
Advantages of Using Google+ over Twitter
This was my contribution to the video. I came about because one of my list email subscribers is struggling with social media and is questioning the advantages of using Twitter over Google+. Since Chris is the expert, I posted the question in Google Moderator so he could ask the panel during the Hangout. One of most outstanding answers came from Shira who shared these points:
“Google + is a great opportunity to connect internationally and find who is active in your area of interest and it's very easy to find that. Where as in Twitter, people are yelling things…if you really want to grow your audience and your authority Google+ is the better social platform.”
The other panelists agreed with Shira and added that there is a strong connection with Google+ and Google search. I'm totally on board with these comments and in my own experience I can confirm that by expanding my network on Google+ I've seen a significant increase in rankings, authority and traffic on Google search. Even though I already knew the answer to this question (and I'm sure you did too), it doesn't hurt to ask because there is no such thing as a dumb question, right guys?
BRAND NEW! YouTube Dashboard and Channel Name Change
Ronnie Bincer walks us through the new options for YouTubers called “Dashboard” where you can add default settings for all your videos. This will save time when you're uploading new videos and you want to reuse tags and description info. Another BIG feature is that Google is now making it easy for us to can change the name of our YouTube channel to match the name on our Google+ profiles. Ronnie also demonstrates how to embed the “teaser video” inside your event invitation and shows us how to add your url and more branding from Advanced options for the new Google+ Events by clicking on “show additional fields”.
Google+ History
Right now this is only available for developers to test and create apps for. But this is a private history of everything you do online. This is actually some pretty futuristic, science-fiction sounding stuff but it will be coming our way soon and we'll never need to worry about getting back to a piece of content you saw online. “Write Moments to Google + History”.
There is a ton of useful information contained in this video and it's all covered from the aspect of how to improve your business, and make it easier for you to reach your readers, clients and customers online.
- Mobile +1 button
- Hangout button for your website
- Paid Magazine subscriptions through Google Play
- Google + Plugins for Discovery
- Improved Google TV
- Google Now
- Google Knowledge Graph
It’s a nice initiative to be honest but looking back at this event it really shows how “desperate” Google really is to try and get a slice of the pie. Love the changes they’ve done on G. plus with all the uber fast indexing (especially on their blogspot platform) but they haven’t really convinced me in the G+ vs Facebook war. We will just have to see what time brings.
I my mind Google has elevated Google+ to a level far beyond Facebook because of what was mentioned in the article “search”. To illustrate my point, have someone (not one of your friends) search for you on Facebook and let me know if you show up in the results ok? Have them do the same search on Google and let me know what happens how you make out. Is that a deal?
Hi Ileane,
Oh yes, the Google family seems to be collaborating throughout and trying to increase engagement within.
I had not heard about the Google IO before. The videos are fairly informative (and lengthy!). I came across some new blogs to add to the feed reader too.
Thanks for posting this update.
Hi Shamelle,
I first reported on Google I/O back in 2010 in this post on my old blog Google I/O 2010 for Dummies
Looking back at that post, Google has made tremendous progress. The only recurring theme is Google TV, everything else is completely new and absolutely innovative.
I too realised the potential of Google+ a little late but nonetheless I am on it. Its a wonderful platform. Its here to stay. Well there is competition between the greats and its good for all of us.
Hi Shalu, Google+ has so many possibilities and now that there is a good chance it’s not going anywhere (like Google Buzz) it is definitely worth the investment of your time. Glad to see you making your presence known over there. 🙂
This is a complicated post but made easy if you read it in its entirety. Thank you Ileane for sharing this post.
Thanks for all the gracious words ILeane :]
If finally figured out a way to spell your name right!
If your peeps have any questions on the above, I am here to help, just ask away here in comments.
Hi Chris,
If anything comes up, I’ll be sure to give you a shout. Thanks for keeping up with the Hangouts. I look forward to them every week because I always learn something new and I love hooking up with the awesome panelists you introduce us too. Thanks for everything Chris!
have you checked that video of google glass ???? man , that was some pretty amazing stuff , i mean how can they manage to do it live?? what if something could go wrong?
really loved the parachute , then biking and landing up on a stage !
Hi Saad, you find a lot of cool stuff that I didn’t even get a chance to see yet. I hope you plan on blogging about them soon. I missed the whole parachute thing….lol Thanks for your comment Saad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxmbbtuRszA
Here’s the link for of that video , you should check it out. One of the best demo video i have watched till now. may be your can add this to the post. 🙂
Hey Ileane, nice summary of the summary by Chris Lang!
I was glad to be part of the panel and surprised at such favorable words you shared about me here on your very own blog page. Thanks so much!
You know I also enjoy poking around and testing stuff with you when new stuff comes out… too bad I’m using a Mac because your tips on capturing your screen during Hangouts would have been handy for me to use. (only works for PCs if you want the Audio).
Yes, we are two nerdy YouTubers aren’t we. I confess! lol It’s been a lot of fun Hanging out with you Ronnie – literally. 🙂 Hopefully we will run some new tests soon. I’m sure YouTube or Hangouts will keep us connected one way or the other.
You know it! When I’m up late, you are just waking up for the next day 😉
Hi Ileane, great post. I do agree with you regarding Google +. I think it is taking social networking to a new level and I can already see the results.
Hi Mariella, Thanks for you stopping by and leaving a comment.
Ileane,
Thank you for recapping this Google on Air. Google is rapidly rolling out new, powerful social features.
I love Google+… Right now as far as social traffic goes I’m still getting a lot more traffic from Twitter or Google+ because many small business owners have not adopted Google+ yet.
Great stuff!
Ryan H.
Ryan, I think Ronnie said it best in the video (I know it’s long but worth watching for sure). Google+ is tied to search, just think about that email I sent to my newsletter subscribers and how I started ranking for “blogging tips”. I’m willing to bet that has a lot to do with my activity on Google+. That’s why I started using this DiggDigg plugin too. When I had Sharebar, I wasn’t getting too many +1’s. Now, I’m getting more of them and sooner or later it all comes together.
Don’t get me wrong, the traffic from Facebook and Twitter is awesome, that’s why I try to be everywhere!!
Thanks for your feedback Ryan.
Thanks for sharing this Ileane ! 🙂 It was actually hard for me to keep track of the live video of the I/O due to the different time zone. I stayed up late night watching the unveiling of the latest tablet Nexus 7 and other awesome tech products ! The next day, had to miss my classes 🙁
I know I have missed a lot of the important releases and watching all of them will take a lot of time. Thanks to you again, I will now watch the video by Ronnie Bincer t 😀
Hi Mushfique, that’s funny to see you refer to it as the “Ronnie Bincer” video. Well at least it’s an inside joke and if you do watch it you’ll see what I mean. LMBO! Ok, so the joke is that’s Ronnie Bincer doing his Chris Lang impersonation….you had to be there……
Hey, I keep telling Chris that he needs to shave his head, then he will have no problems with ‘morning hair’ … could be an issue with his HIRL Roadshow!
I’ve heard good things about the G+ Events. I do wish more people would get into G+ because I would love to say goodbye to Facebook completely. I like Twitter but of course you have limits to what you can post, which makes it hard to really have a conversation. Most people I know are still on Facebook but I’d be fine never using it again. I dabble in G+ once in a while but sadly I just don’t know as many people and haven’t met that many new people there yet. But it does seem like Google is being pretty aggressive about promoting it so maybe it[‘ll start to catch on even more. Thanks for the wrapup!
Carol Lynn, add everyone I mentioned in this post to your circles on Google+ and add everyone that Chris has as a panelist on his weekly shows and you’ll be golden. I promise. If you start connecting and filling your circles with interesting people like this you will get a whole lot more out of Google+ than you can imagine. Part of the trick is to find new people because most of the power users aren’t on Facebook anyway, and Chris is a power user if I ever saw one.
I think it’ll be a long time before I can even understand the hi-technical aspects of this post. All I could infer was Google is doing a lot of changes to improve Google+ on mobile and everywhere. The events, apps and hangout, although never used by me are something that I would love to learn more about. Maybe by next I/O, I’ll know how to deal with them. Cheers. 😀
Hey Sergio, here’s how you can take the first steps. Get yourself a YouTube channel. If you have one already then make sure you have your YouTube channel listed on your Google+ profile and vice versa. Then add the Hangouts button on your blog and start hanging out with your community. It is super simple to get started. Put it this way, it’s 10 times easier to do a Hangout than it is to write a blog post.
I’m here to answer any of your questions and I’m more than happy to give you a hand if you get stuck.
Go for it!
Thanks Ileane. Its a relief to know that a pro is ready to help me.
Hi Ileane,
I’m fully agree with Shira’s answer on advantages of Google+ over Twitter. The best advantage of Google+ over Twitter is that it is very easy to find people interested on our niche in our area as Shira said.
BTW videos are lengthy, will have to watch them.
Hi Ehsan,
You’re doing a great job of making connections on Google+. Nice work buddy! Let us know if you need help with anything.
Ms. Ileane I am waiting for the feature “Hangout button for website” and it will be really cool to have this on my blog. Recently one of my friend blogger ask me to start using Google hangout and guess what it was really amazing and fun.
Well this is all a little over my head Ileane, sorry.
I did see your comment to Sergio and I agree that I can never find my friends in Facebook. I know their names and where they live yet they still never come up which is so annoying to me. I have no doubt that Google’s search function is much better and I enjoy the people on there as well. Twitter is a lot noisier and hard to be heard at times.
Thanks for this information though. I have no doubt it’s beneficial so please forgive me for being a little on the slow side of this.
Enjoy your week young lady.
~Adrienne
It must have been a great event, too bad i missed it. Next year i will try to learn about it earlier!
Thank you for recapping this Google on Air. Google is rapidly rolling out new, powerful social features.
I love Google+… Right now as far as social traffic goes I’m still getting a lot more traffic from Twitter or Google+ because many small business owners have not adopted Google+ yet.
Great stuff!
oh thanks for recap i was missed the live event of Google I/O. Now watching whole event in online.
Google I/O was really a Great Event, i had watch almost all video of that. Your recap is really appreciative !
Nice info here Ileane, I missed the info on Google I/O – Love the hangout button on a blog – I’m sure you will have that one Ileane. I hoping to get in a hang out soon -goal for this week after reading this post. Feel like I’m missing out on a lot! Been reading a lot about events on Hangouts too like the Olympics.
oh thanks for recap i was really like the live event of Google I/O. Now watching whole event in online.
I think Google should take +1 button to another level, maybe make it show up to non Google Account users so everyone can vote
Awesome show of technology, but i only hope google TV is not getting shelved….