Connecting the Dots / An Agency Blog

Since launching in June (publicly in September), the question of whether or not Google+ will take market share from Facebook has been a common one for both marketers and agencies. While we collectively tend to like new platforms: new opportunities for brands to connect with their market, and new opportunities for agencies to innovate on their clients’ behalf, shifting any amount of attention away from Facebook requires Google+ to provide a very different offering, or at least a larger, more engaged audience.

Now, five months in, the big question is; has Google+ proved to be serious consideration? Will it have a chance to rival Facebook’s incredibly large user base? How will it compete in terms of time on site and user loyalty?

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Whenever one of the big tech co’s does something even remotely of interest, and even more often when it’s under the radar, the tech blogs light up with speculation and criticism instantly. Even when it’s as insubstantial as the Microsoft Bing.com team’s recent internal use of their new Binged.It URL shortener.

Microsoft seems far less
concerned with an extra
character in their URL
shortener, or even the
prospect of using a truly
short URL than they are
about building a solid and
recognizable brand around
the Bing product.

The service isn’t yet public, and for all we know, it may never be. But with URL shortening becoming commonplace and creating some interesting business opportunities – tracking audience interest for example – it would be surprising if the Google’s, YouTube’s, and Microsoft’s weren’t exploring the space with some level of interest.

Microsoft’s Binged.It URL shortener caught some heat recently on TechCrunch.com, with the blog and most of the commenters jumping all over the fact that Bing’s short URL (Binged.It – 8 characters) is longer than the service’s main URL (Bing.com – 7 characters). Fair point, considering a URL shortener should, er, shorten a URL, right?!

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