This week’s most stunning statistic: In February, Facebook drove more traffic to the Guardian web site than Google did.This fact was proffered (I couldn’t bring myself to write shared) at the Changing Medias Summit Conference by Tanya Corduroy, Guardian’s director for digital development (full text of her speech):

Eighteen months ago, search represented 40% of the Guardian’s traffic and social represented just 2%. Six months ago – before the launch of our Facebook app – these figures had barely moved.

A recent Pew report echoed these figures, revealing that just 9% of digital news consumers follow news recommendations from Facebook or from Twitter. That compares with 32% who get news from search.

But last month, we felt a seismic shift in our referral traffic. For the first time in our history, Facebook drove more traffic to guardian.co.uk than Google for a number of days, accounting for more than 30% of our referrer traffic. This is a dramatic result from a standing start five months ago.

She made her point with a graph showing the crossing of the two traffic lines, even though the Facebook referrals now appear to be receding:

This is obviously a great achievement for the team who created the FB app. Overall, The Guardian’s relentless pursuit of digital innovation is paying off. Its last monthtraffic stats are staggering: more than 4 million unique browsers (+64% vs. Feb 2011) and almost 70 million unique browser monthly (+76% vs. Feb 2011). As for its mobile site, it is growing at a year-to-year rate of… 182%, with 640,000 unique browsers a month.

The Guardian Facebook App played a critical role in this rise in traffic. Over the last five months, 8 million people downloaded it and 40,000 are signing up every day, again according to Tanya Cordrey.

More at: http://www.mondaynote.com/2012/03/26/the-sharing-mirage/

Yesterday, Google rolled out yet another new feature for Google+ that lets you start a conversation directly from search results - and contribute to a topical Google+ stream.

In a post on Google+ (of course), associate product manager Alex Unger said that if you search for a keyword of phrase like basketball from within Google+, you can then create a post directly from the results shown.

He added that all you need to do is look for the share box, and you’ll see an opportunity to “join the discussion” about whatever you’ve searched for.

This means that when you post from the search results page, it automatically includes a link back to the original search stream. This way others can join the active conversation as it unfolds.”

This is yet another move to position Google+ as a central hub – as well as more closely connecting search and social functions.

Up until the announcement of this new feature, you could only comment on an existing post or share an item when searching for something on Google+.

This now removes one step in the search and share process, which makes it easier to start a conversation and keeps people in the Google loop.

More at: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8733-google-lets-you-start-a-conversation-directly-from-search-results

Organic +1′s Will Also Show Up in Ads

What’s also interesting is that users don’t need to specifically endorse ads for their pluses appear on ads. Google’s Oestlien said that there’s a common infrastructure for social search/+1 on both the organic and paid sides. As a result user pluses in organic SERPs or on publisher sites away from Google will impact their appearance in paid search ads.

Here’s a concrete example: say I’m looking for places to stay in Lake Tahoe California for a family ski vacation. I visit a Marriott hotel site as part of my research and decide I like the hotel (so to speak). I then decide to click the +1 button on that Marriott page. If Marriott later incorporates the same URL in its paid search ad for Tahoe vacations my +1 will appear on that ad together with my name and avatar.

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To digress for a moment, there are three consumer experiences around +1:

1. No Google account or not signed in
2. Google account, signed in, but no Google Profile
3. Google Profile holder

Those with Google Profiles can “plus” things; everyone else cannot. The next level down, Google account holders who are signed in will see all the +1′s and personalized “recommendations” even though they cannot add their own pluses without a Google Profile. It will look very much like Social Search does today. Finally, those not signed in or without a Google account will see aggregated +1 data but no personalized information: e.g., 10 users +1′d this (page or ad).

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Google Profile Adoption Challenge

Because publishers and webmasters will quickly realize the potential AdWords and organic benefits of +1 they will adopt the button. The bigger challenge for Google is on the consumer side.

Facebook had a massive installed base of users before the “Like” button was rolled out. Google will need to create that base as it rolls +1 out by getting people to sign up for Google Profiles.

Pluses will be counted as one of the signals that Google eventually uses to determine organic rankings. It’s less clear whether pluses will impact ads quality and paid rankings.