By Anthony Ha via techcrunch @AnthonyHa

Hey, here are some personalized search results that I might actually like.

Google has been expanding its Universal Search feature for a while, adding images, news stories, and more to its search results. Today the company announced that it’s starting a field trial that will experiment with adding your personal Gmail results as well.

After all, a lot of useful personal information is now piling up in your inbox, so Google plans to make that information available in your web searches (assuming you’re signed in to your account). For example, if you need to access your flight information while you’re checking in, you don’t need to open up Gmail — you can just search for “my flights” from Google, and you’ll get a list of relevant information from your email appearing on the right side of the screen.

Recommended: See instantly what your website visitors love and hate about your website with Heatmaps

Google’s Sagar Kamdar also demonstrated using this feature to check on his Amazon orders to see if a package has shipped yet, and he talked about other services that might be integrated in the future. Imagine not just searching for your OpenTable reservations, but also connecting that information with other data that Google has access to, such as getting reminders of when you need to leave if you want to arrive at a restaurant in time for your reservation.

This comes at a time when Google has been adding a lot of personalized and social features to search, usually tied to Google+, and often meeting with a mixed response from users (or at least from me). While it’s hard to judge the results without playing with the feature for myself, but this sounds like an example of how using other Google services to personalize search can be genuinely useful.

You can sign up for the field trial here.

The post Google Tests Adding Gmail To Your Search Results appeared first on Think, The Blytheco Blog.

Since we started the ‘big #blyDEA,’ many of you have asked what exactly a blyDEA is.  Simply put, it’s anything you’d like it to be – anything appropriate and worth sharing to the business community that is.  In fact, there just happens to be an article that outlines exactly what we hope to accomplish by sharing blyDEAs and how to use the hashtag if you are unfamiliar.  Check out the article here.

The idea behind sharing blyDEAs (no pun intended) is to enlighten the community with thoughts, opinions, or suggestions that others might find useful in their everyday professional lives.  It could be on topics like: tips to improve your ERP strategy, the importance of mobility to CRM, which mobile platform you should be using on your mobile device, or even ways to protect your fruit from being damaged.  The choice is truly yours.

So, what’s the benefit of sharing your blyDEAs?  Besides enlightening your peers?  Well, from now until August 10th, the most interesting and/or compelling blyDEA will be chosen each week, and the winner gets a free blog-vertisement!  This could be in the form of an ad on our blog, or your very own written (by our expert writers if you so desire) blog article that can help direct traffic back to you and your website.

Better yet, if you’re going to Sage Summit, you’ll get the opportunity to share your blyDEAs there and enter to win a special grand prize.  Pretty neat huh!?  So what makes a good blyDEA a good blyDEA?  Is it doing something because its popular at the time, or being the first to do something by setting the trend?  Or maybe it’s actually adhering to the feedback you get from your customers directly or socially and by using this info to create something spectacular?  What do you think?  Let us know your blyDEAs and follow us on Twitter!

Want your community’s feedback?  Take our 4 minute Social Business Benchmarking Survey and get your free report on what your industry thinks.  You could win a Kindle Fire!

The post What Makes a Good blyDEA a Good #blyDEA appeared first on Think, The Blytheco Blog.

As many of you have heard by now, we’ve been doing a weekly ‘Month of Love’ contest where each winner receives a Kindle Fire.  Today is the LAST day to use the twitter hashtag #BlythecoLove to gain an entry. We’re also honoring a special client each week to show our appreciation and to honor the way they show the love to their customers.

Today, we salute Drake Hardware and Software!  Drake Hardware & Software is a consulting firm with the main focus of analysis, design and implementation of network infrastructures and systems including website design and programming for businesses. Their consultants have a combination of over thirty years of experience in the computer hardware, software, web and networking fields.

At DHS, one of their top priorities is customer service.   In the survey they responded to, Dana of DHS said one of the best things to do to show the love to your customers is to simply ‘stop by and say hello.’  No sales pitch – just a genuine compassionate visit.  They show their employees the love by providing breakfast, bonuses, and tickets to events!

When asked what song best represents the love they have for their clients.  Their response was “I’ll be there” by the Jackson 5.  What a good song choice!’

For your network infrastructure needs like DHS on Facebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6pAxF2br_U

#BlythecoLove

The post The Month of Love: Featuring Drake Hardware & Software appeared first on Think, The Blytheco Blog.