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Google has enlisted several popular launch partners in a bid to engage with customers and get them to use the Sign-In Feature. These include USA Today, The Guardian, Flixster, Shazam, and more.

 

 

The Google+ Sign-In feature works well with mobiles – especially Android devices – giving mobile users several advantages. For example, an Android user will be identified by websites when they use Sign-In, and will be asked to download the corresponding Android app which will update itself without being instructed to by the user. As many mobile users are turning towards apps and away from mobile sites, a business who uses apps will undoubtedly get ahead of their competitors when it comes to mobile marketing. Sign-In also makes use of interactive posts, enabling shares via any Google+ authenticated site or app.

 

 

Other social networking sites – such as Facebook – publishes the activities of users without giving them any say. This can include statuses, games they’ve played, articles they’ve read, invites and so on. There are no different privacy settings and the user is left with no control over what gets sent out to their online friends. Google+ Sign-In actually allows users to have more control over the information that is shared on their behalf – their content will be able to be shared ‘publicly’ or ‘privately’ (just within their Google+ Circles). This level of control will no doubt attract new users to Sign-In.

 

 

Google+ Sign-In will prove to be invaluable to brands, in terms of how much data they will be able to gather on users. This exchange of data already occurs with other social authentications (such as Facebook Connect), but businesses will be able to access a whole range of data in the Google API: the full name of the user, their online ID, information about their contacts and their Circles, their profile pictures, and other demographics such as their language and age range. The sheer amount of information that can be gathered (additional services on Google such as Gmail and the Calendar can also be accessed – through a consent dialogue box) gives brands valuable data about their customers that could drastically improve their online marketing strategies.

 

There are some downsides to Google+ Sign-In (such as the limited amount of data regarding keywords that can be gathered on users through search), but generally it looks like it could be a game changer for Google, using the ideas of existing social networking authentications and taking them to the next level.