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The Future: Seen Through Google Glasses.

Google GlassesThere’s already a lot of buzz going on about the coming release from the “Google X” office. Some of the theories floating around about what kind of technology will eventually be implemented into these “Google Glasses” and the possible ramifications they could have on society are nothing less than profound. I am both excited and scared to see what could unfold.

On the one hand, I can see how these could be useful on so many levels. It could be, nice at times, to get price comparisons on products from other nearby stores when you are shopping. You may eventually be able to know who people are you bump into on the street based on facial recognition technology and who you have in common in your social circles. Possibly make business contacts with people in real time in a similar manner based on their LinkedIn profile. The possibilities are endless.

On the other hand, the loss of privacy could be immense. Location data tracking your every move, your every search query in relation to where you are, what you are seeing, who your with. Starting to get a real Minority Report vibe from all of it. Of course, the technology for a lot of that already exists on your smart phone. Welcome to the future.

But let’s get down to business. It won’t be long before we could be looking at a real game changer. It’s easy to blow it off as hype right now & cite examples like Siri. Sure, Siri is popular but it’s real impact has been relatively minimal for most businesses. Yes, certain businesses have likely found ways to capitalize on Siri’s reliance on Yelp, by optimizing their Yelp listing & pushing reviews there. But Siri primarily affects business discovery by choosing for us how to do things, which we were already doing. Using services (such as Yelp & Google) a little differently than we may have used them without Siri’s help. The inception of Google Glasses could be positioned to create a whole new ballgame… the implications that come with wearing them could be much more profound.

What does this mean for SEO? Well, for one thing, the fact that location information is said to be a major feature of them should tell you that your local SEO efforts are about to become even more

X-Ray Vision for Merchants

important. On the one hand, that might not seem too important if everybody (or at least a large percentage of the population) doesn’t adopt & use the technology. One the other, if you can stand out from the crowd to the people who do adopt it, the people who can afford to drop $250-$500+ on a pair…they may likely be potential customers who can afford to use your products & services as well. Don’t you think the kind of customers above the monetary threshold of “window shoppers” are the best kind to target anyway? From a business standpoint, I would rather target 5 people that can afford a pair of these glasses than 15 that can’t. Let’s face it, when the economy is a little tougher, unless you are in the business of essentials (groceries, gas, utilities, etc.) you need to target people who don’t have the blinders on for “extras”. Google Glasses will likely act as x-ray vision for consumers to find and buy merchants products and services.

Remember when the Internet was in its infancy? Many merchants, with the foresight and vision to see how they could leverage it, got wealthy very quickly. For some it was primarily because they were one of the few merchants in the space…the big fish in a small pond. This could be the beginning of something similar to that. If augmented reality takes off stemming from these, GPS location information and Google Maps information will come into play on a massive scale.

So how can you be prepared, best as possible, to be seen through Google Glasses? Local SEO. My feeling is that anything related to local SEO will have the most impact, at least initially. Get your Google Places page optimized, get your customers to leave reviews there. Get your other citations cleaned up & get some reviews there also. Do your onsite optimization. After you have done all that, get some more citations. But you have already done all this, right? So, sit back and relax… the future will be upon, or “up on” us soon.

 

 

Ryan AmenRyan Amen is a SEO/ORM Account Manager at Nifty Marketing. When he is not spending time with his amazing wife & 3 children, you can likely find him practicing/learning SEO & marketing.

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