Google+ is eating up the SERP

With Places being replaced by G+ Local over the past week, it's small businesses that are almost immediately forced into taking action.

Why? Subtle G+ links are starting to appear directly in the snippets of the businesses' official website results in the SERP - whether they like it or not.

But hey, what if the business had not yet bothered creating a page? No worries at all -- Google has automatically created one for you!!

In the case of Gelato Messina, a well-loved Sydney institution in Darlinghurst, Google is linking to one of these automagically created G+ pages (based on previous reviews on the now defunct Google Places platform). Furthermore, they will show you the 'Search Plus Your World' result on the right side of the results page, whilst relegating all other review sites like Urbanspoon and Eatability to the bottom portion of the page.

I'm fairly certain +Messina Gelato (which appears to be their official page) does not even know that this is going on right now. I will surely be looking on with keen interest on how this develops over the next few weeks.

Will businesses feel the need to come on board after completely freaking out from a test vanity search? Will they suck it up and rely on Facebook and Twitter to get the right information out? So many questions..

Originally posted on Google+.

Doing Dallas

15 hours stuck in the middle of the very last row of a 747 is a special kind of hell alright, but we managed to make it to the other side fairly unscathed. Predictably, I only got an hour of shut eye, but just like last year, I got through a tonne of films, including The Descendants and 50/50.

Can I just call it? From now on, any movie that is to be set in Seattle is required to end with Yellow Ledbetter as the credits start to roll. So good. And The Descendants should have won best picture. Both films dealt with death in an incredibly honest way but my god, Descendants kinda blew me away..

So Dallas, what can I say about Dallas.. I'm surprised it is raining here but I'm also hearing that it has been torrential in Sydney town since we left too. The hotel we're staying downtown on Elm St, has a really cool 9th floor pool deck - check out the panoramic view: http://360.io/vcThRV

In other news, just heard that the Laneway Festival guys are hosting some bands again at SXSW. At the same party last year, I managed to discover excellent bands like Givers and Twin Shadow. This year's line up is again looking great and you should expect a bunch of them to be added to the 2013 Laneway list. Takes place at Mohawk on Wed 14 March. Bands are:

Blood Orange
Chairlift
Clock Opera
Django Django
DZ Deathrays
Husky
Kindness
Twerps
Zulu Winter
+ one other _special_ guest

More here: http://sydney.lanewayfestival.com.au/news/announcing-our-second-annual-sxsw-party/

SX tools

So I have a page on my iOS device dedicated to SXSW and NYC designed for maximum enjoyment. Apps like Highlight and Glancee sound a little creepy but hopefully they will lead to connection with some cool people while over there. Basically, it will buzz me when someone with similar interests (based on our FB profiles and our likes) is in close proximity.

Sched will be used for tracking panels mostly - tracking bands however for the second half of the festival will be crazy ambitious.

If you're reading this and you would like to connect with me in Austin, find me on the twitters (@getbiglittlekid) or check out my schedule: http://austin2012.sched.org/getbiglittlekid

Also let me know of other apps you could recommend. Thanks!

Austin bound

So here we go again.. Wildly packing my bags for Austin and SXSW.

Never-ending thoughts of Texan Bar-B-Qs, stupendously enormous conference halls, beef brisket taco food trucks and all that free booze flicker through my mind, as I frantically try to remember that last thing I was supposed remember to pack from earlier..

This time tomorrow folks, I will be somewhere over the Pacific en route to Dallas Fort Worth. I will schedule a blog post (for #b03 sakes), but really, see you Stateside.

Viral videos worth spreading

Tonight, while I should have been packing, watched a whole bunch of TED videos instead. One of the better ones was this talk by Kevin Allocca on 'Why videos go viral'. He should know his stuff too as the YouTube's Trends Manager, which allows him to "professionally watch YouTube videos".

In this entertaining and at times hilarious talk, Allocca shares his theories on why videos do get shared around so that a video of a cat watching a kitten watching Nyan Cat could be viewed millions of times. His main factors are the unexpectedness of the video (which end up being hilarious), a sense of participation (modern remix culture), and just dumb luck ('double rainbow' was uploaded months before Jimmy Kimmel tweeted it out).

Nothing ground breaking here, but worth a look if you're in the mood for a bit of a laugh.