Google launches Google Beat
Late last week, Google launched its latest jump into the content creation space with Google Beat, a YouTube-based video blog that showcases the top search terms of the week. Hosted by Google PR staff Anne Espiritu, the Web series will highlight the latest search activities and trending queries on Google Search US and the stories behind them.
To be honest, this feels like a step closer to Yahoo’s content mill shtick with their own similarly themed Who Knew Web series launched back in May. However, instead of focusing on the popular Yahoo search terms, it compiles the most popular news content on Yahoo News. Google, on the other hand, showed minimal thrust towards creating content.
On the flipside, it may not really be that far of a departure, given Google’s recent foray into self-marketing with an ad during Super Bowl Sunday. This was the platform that launched their Search Stories campaign which was well received with a handful of partnerships with the likes of the Toy Story franchise and actor Seth Green. It also invited search enthusiasts to create their own YouTube videos telling their Google Search stories-a strategy straight out of an SEO article in terms of consumer engagements, brand development and reputation management.
The results presented on Google Beat are from the search data collected by their analytics tools Google Insights for Search and Google Trends. Logically, it seems to be a weekly chunk out of their annual Google Zeitgeist which counts down the year’s most popular searches.
Popularity: 16% [?]
RSpears @ August 31, 2010
