Rising from the ashes of the failed Google Buzz and Wave initiatives, Google’s social media savior was finally revealed this week, triggering equal amounts of anticipation, interest and skepticism. So is Google Plus the ‘Facebook Killer’ that years of speculation and secrecy might suggest?

As the presence of web search becomes more ubiquitous in the lives of users, coupled with the increased awareness of social media power on the web, the relation of these two segments might reveal a new way to interact with the web.

GroupM and Comscore recently announced the results of a study looking at the relationship between social media exposure and search behavior. The study’s results showed that users who engage with social media, especially those exposed to a brand’s influenced social media, are far more likely to search for and click on brand and product related terms than users who do not engage with social media.

Forrester recently reported that Search Marketing will far out-pace other forms of interactive marketing in 2009, and is expected to grow by a 15% compound annual rate through 2014.

There are countless ways in which search marketing can affect consumer behavior. We've illustrated 50 such "moments", bringing to life many examples and benefits of search marketing to paint a picture of the larger impact it can have.

I thought I'd give an example of a stellar Twitter campaign from a few days ago. A UK firm named Moonfruit became the most popular company on Twitter through a pretty simple contest. The fact that they moved Michael Jackson down in popularity is pretty staggering.