Social Success plus a Slight Bit o' Search (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – January 29, 2012)

Just a quick collection of link love to share today, Big Thinkers, all related to social success and how social changes search. Don’t worry, we’ll continue our series on website analytics fundamentals on Monday. But, for now, on with the links:

• Linda Bustos shows why Google+ matters to e-commerce.
• Social Media Examiner asks whether social media can actually make money—I suspect you’ll like the answer, too.
• Search Engine Land picks on Google for crappy search results, questioning whether Google’s attention to Google+ and social has shifted its focus away from search. I think it’s worth asking whether Google’s shift in attention is a sign that customers increasingly care more about search than social. Something to keep an eye on going forward.
• Not that social doesn’t have a dark side, The New York Times dives into the practice of paying for good reviews online.

I hope you have a great weekend, folks. See you next week!

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Technorati Tags: search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, social, social commerce, social marketing, social media, social search, social strategy