Google Profiles - Not Your Typical Social Networking Profile Page

The advent of social networking sites such as My Space, Facebook and Ning have made profile pages pretty common place. These sites are the reigning monarchy of profile pages. Few people are aware that Google, the reigning search engine king, also offers profile pages. Google Profiles is still in its experimental stage. Google Profiles is not a social networking site in the same vain as Facebook, My Space and Ning, it is more like a directory of personal home pages all designed in the same format. Your Google Profiles page can be liken to your calling card on the web where friends and others can contact you, see what you are up to, and check out what type of web sites you are networking with. How much information you choose to include in your Profile is totally up to you.

You can view existing Profiles user's pages at www.google.com/profiles. The typical Google Profiles page consists of a personal identification section, a photo and image section, a detail profile section, and a link section. Profile pages are indexed and show up in Google search results pretty quick. They do not command regular search engine result listing status. Google Profiles are shown at the bottom of page one of the search result pages with an image and a link to that person's Google Profile page.

To set up your own Google Profiles page click on the Create My Profile button. Gmail users Profiles page will be partially filled in. You can change any information listed. Fill in the blanks with the information you are comfortable sharing. Decide whether you would like to be contacted and check the box accordingly. In the About Me section, complete the A Little Personality section, giving more details about yourself and answer the listed questions. The Links section is where you add URLs to the various sites you operate, post blog comments on, share photos, or just want to tell others about. You can also add your own customized link to your Facebook page, your YouTube videos, Twitter, or other social networking sites, Flicker feeds, and favorite Wikipedia entries.

The last portion of your Google Profiles page setup is the choice of your Profile address. Google will suggest a URL based on your Google account ID which is generally your Gmail address. If you do not wish to be contacted, you may wish to change this because someone may be able to easily determine your Gmail address from the Google suggestion. You can choose your own Google Profiles address but be careful because you only get one opportunity to select a customized Profile address.

Google Profiles offers you one more way to build and announce your online presence. Profile pages are beginning to saturate the Internet. Will Google Profiles become just another one of them? Only time will tell. But with Google behind it, there is no doubt your Profile page will be viewable, indexed in the search engine results, and accessible to be edited indefinitely. So it may be worthwhile to give it a try.

Resource: Google Profiles - www.google.com/profiles