Google Enhances Its Social Capabilities With Google+ Collections

Google is rolling out a Pinterest-like feature for Google+, allowing users to create and discover “boards” on the platform.

The new addition, called “Collections,” enables Google+ users to categorize their posts and post to a collection. Similar to Pinterest boards, each collection is focused on a specific subject, and can be shared publicly, privately, or with a group of select users, Dmitry Shapiro, group product manager for Google, explained in a Google+ post.
When a user follows a collection, Google+ will surface posts in that collection, with a link to help the user easily jump right into it.

Liam Walsh, director of digital marketing at agency Primacy, thinks Google is trying to engage with more female users with this Pinterest-like feature.

“The interesting thing here is that Pinterest is used by more women and Google+ is used by more men,” Walsh says. “With Google+ Collections, it looks like Google is trying hard to target and engage [with] the female demographic.”

Google declined to share more details on Collections beyond Shapiro’s Google+ post. But this move seems to echo the statement from Google’s head of product Sundar Pichai at the Mobile World Congress this year, who said that “Google+ [is] always two things, a stream and a social layer,” and the latter is a larger goal.

With the addition of Google+ Collections, Google is building up its capabilities in the social media space, with a focus on content and visual discovery, according to Karim Hijazi, chief executive (CEO) of agency Tagspire.

“I think that Google is just adapting to the ever-changing landscape that requires content to be highly relevant and cater to visual discovery rather than utilize the conventional text-heavy blog approach,” Hijazi says. “The concept of curated organic content is strong and pervasive. Google is simply acknowledging the already ubiquitous trend with a clever addition to their platform.”

“This will enhance [Google’s] social presence that has never been considered to be as dominant as Facebook or Twitter for example,” he adds.

Image via Shutterstock.