Google launced several new features today and one in particular will be of interest to chambers of commerce and member-based organizations looking to improve their search engine results.

Logged-in users to Goolge will now see something new in their search results.  In a search I did for membership management software, this is what I saw:



Note the little "up" and "down" arrows next to the link.  You can "vote up" or "vote down" the results and leave notes about your reasons so that others can see them. 

Of course, we're not sure how Google will interpret these results, but there may be an opportunity for chambers of commerce and business associations to have their members help them be found for certain search terms.  In WebLink's case, if we could get all of our clients from around the country to search for "technololgy for member-based organizations" or "chamber membership management software" and vote us up, PLUS give reasons why, it may improve our search results. 

Of course, there is likely to be a rush for marketers to try to beat the system and Google will find ways to offset that.  However, I do think this is an interesting change to Google's service.  How will this affect how WE interpret Google's search results?  We'll post more information as we learn how to best use this service for business associatons and chambers of commerce.