“. . . We hope the Keyword will let us bring you more stories and tell them in more ways — stories about our products and our people, our ideas and our inspiration, the world inside Google and the world around us.”
– Emily Wood, manager of global communications and public affairs at Google
Google is the world’s most recognized search engine, ad the organization is nearly as infamous for how often it likes to shake things up. Continuing its constant evolution and progression, Google recently proclaimed that it would be adding a handful of new features, and utterly rebranding, “Apps for Work” to the more fitting moniker, “G Suite.” Alongside this alteration, the company has also announced its Nexus flagship Smartphones are receiving a name change: these devices will now be known as “Pixel” phones. Additionally, Google is also launching a VR headset to go with the gadget, much in the same way that Samsung released its Gear VR a year earlier.
To pile on even more changes to these advancements, Google has also announced that it will be consolidating its blogging efforts under a single digital roof known as “The Keyword.” The new primary blog, which can be found at blog.google, will serve as a way to centralize Google’s legions of dedicated blogs like Android, Gmail, Google Fiber, YouTube and scads of other sources into a single place for readers to absorb content and info.
In the initial posting about the new destination from Sept. 28, Google manager of global communications and public affairs Emily Wood wrote:“The Keyword is all the stuff we had across 19 blogs, in one place — so you don’t have to hop from one blog to another to find the latest update. If you’re looking for something from Google from now on, chances are it’s here.”
While the posting does denote that The Keyword concentrates 19 different blogs into a single source, it does not disclose which blogs these will be — Google has many, many more dedicated content portals; 54 of which are in English with tons of others catering to international audiences. There is no need for overseas visitors to fear neglect, however. The blog’s about page states: “Over time we plan to expand to include other languages, countries and more.”
But this new blog will not replace all of Google’s current blogging properties outright. The company has made clear that it will be, “. . . retaining a bunch of our existing blogs for more specific audiences. . .” such as those for developers and advertisers.
The website itself is set up in a way that allows visitors to easily navigate product news on Google’s different offerings, more refined topics like machine learning, and broader subjects like the week’s biggest news.
In the coming months, Google will be absorbing more and more of its existing blogs with The Keyword, making it the premier Google news destination the company aims to create. As this nexus (nice pun) slowly begins to emerge, it will pose some great advantages for companies that stay privy to Google’s advances.
The Advantages of The Keyword
In the official post announcing The Keyword, it was stated: “Keywords also unlock information, which is what we’re hoping to do here — provide a central, official source of news about who we are, what we do, and what we value.”
This single hub of Google-related information serves small business owners who are already strapped for time by allowing them to surf a single destination for a variety of updates in an assortment of fields. For these individuals, time is one of their most precious resources; one that they are typically clamoring for more of. By aggregating most all of Google’s updates into a single hub, it will eliminate the need for company managers to surf from blog to blog catching up on all of the latest developments and potentially missing out on a crucial piece of information. This newfound time can then be spent putting their acquired knowledge into practice.
Moreover, those who compete with rival companies who tend to only update themselves through a handful of Google news sources will ultimately have a less comprehensive picture of what is transpiring in AdWords, YouTube updates, SEO, mobile developments, and other vital areas of online development. Gaining your news from this single source could provide paradigm-shifting potential when compared with those seeking out other avenues. Be mindful that Google news is biased to, well, Google, so alternative perspectives are always helpful to get the big picture.
While it will still take time for Google to build The Keyword into what it is meant to be, the transition will likely be smooth and seamless for users. That is more than can be said for many of Google’s other shifts, such as Mobilgeddon and other potentially difficult changes like the impact Alphabet will have on SEO. Despite the minor hurdles, however, the new centralized blog will likely have a larger and more positive impact on business-oriented individuals than it might appear to at face value.
In due time, however, many of Google’s current blogs will cease to be because The Keyword is designed to “make it easier for you to find Google’s official word on any given topic.”
