Google has entered the social sharing game arena with their newly launched +1. Judging from the pages and pages of “how to install the Google +1 button” in the search results, I would say it has been warmly received (I suppose it is always beneficial to write about the big guy).But, we know that warmly received in the blogosphere does not always equate to conversations and mass amounts of Google users being eager to +1 an article/search result. Not everyone really knows what it is, how it will be used and, really wants to share their hat tips with the search giant. Sure, Google has explained it but for many they cannot get past that it is a copy cat to Facebook likes.
Google +1 in Search Results
Back in March, Google touted the + 1 ” … as the right recommendations right when you want them – in your search results.” Google goes on to say that the +1 is:
enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called —the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results.
Appearing in Google search results. Hmh. This raises some eyebrows for sure as already social signals were being pulled and displayed from our social circle so now we would have a +1 button that does what? Appears in search results. How?
How Google +1 Displays in Search Results
The +1 appears next to each result to your query when you have a Google profile and only when you are logged in. Seems like some pertinent criteria those not as engrossed in social networking and not using Gmail as their email provider, may not necessarily have and if they did, would they really press the button? There is no real incentive to do so as there is no interaction like we see on Facebook, no new page to look at and enter a contest or receive a coupon; in other words no tangible rewards. So, for the casual or even heavy user, what is the incentive to press the button to give props for a search result? Oh the social sharing where your +1 is seen by your social circle. This is if you have created a social circle (if you are not a heavy gmail user or your friends are not on gmail, the answer to this is probably No). This now attracts our need to belong or for the attention to show our friends that we know things which has NOTHING to do with search results.
Is Google +1 Destined to Fail?
Maybe. The products before have and being that there is not really a niche like a Yelp, a Facebook where there is an entire interactive platform behind the Like we have to really think about the success of this. Sure, there is the blogging community but while there are millions of blogs, I am not so sure that we will all rush to +1 our competitors to push them ahead of us in the rankings. Which bring me to some other aspects to consider:
1. Adoption. It is a shiny new tool. Within days there was a WordPress Plugin available and numerous articles on how to add it to your site. Despite having some heavy hitters that had added the button early on and encouraged users to test it out, this does not automatically mean that users were just not taking it for a test ride and clicked it and moved on. Also, when we are searching, are we paying attention to the social sharing or the results themselves? Well, we would be paying attention to the result itself and would have to use the back button to return to the search to +1 as we probably would not just +1 from a preview in the right sidebar (or click it on the site if it was installed). Also, as it is translucent, does everyone see/is paying attention to it?
2. Credibility. The credibility of the search results can be compromised and diminished. If our search queries are yielding mediocre content or content that has us searching for more, then we will not be as trusting of results. The more +1 an article/website receives, the higher the rankings. Google had to tie this to rankings or it would already have failed. Of course there are other factors considered within the algorithms but we would be naive to think that +1′s do not have some considerable weight. The flip side is that we may go deeper in the pages to find those golden nuggets that were not heavily promoted with +1′s but satisfy our search queries. Google already seems to give Likes from Fan page (as they cannot search the personal pages) rankings as we saw recently in an experiment with Rand Fishkin as explained in depth by Danny Sullivan.
3. Google Profiles Privacy. This is where we may see a lot of people not be so keen on clicking the +1 button. When we +1, it is stored in our Google Profile and we can keep it private so that only we can see each article/website/page that we have +1 or we can make it public.
However, even if we have it private, our social circle will always see what we have +1 if it matches their search query/result. .
4. Abuse. With anything we will more than likely see this is as the new black hat SEO. There will be those that game the system as the more +1, presumably the higher the ranking. We all want #1 rankings and lots of them so what will stop some sleazy companies from promising and guaranteeing rankings though a proprietary means that is being offered exclusively to only 10 companies? Or a strong group that comes together that reciprocates +1 to push one another’s rankings? We know it will happen and this reverts us back to credibility. If the search results suck and there are a lot of complaints or we see Bing bridging the gap, +1 will fade away like the other Google mishaps before it.
Google as a Search Engine
Google is a search engine and a damn good one. I never use any other site for search. It does not always yield the results I would like (it is not a miracle worker) for this site or my queries when I am eyeball deep in research however I trust the results and would never stray. However, Google is trying to tread into some murky waters. They are trying to be a social site and a competitor of Facebook. Now, we can argue that Facebook is trying to be a search engine and is “learning” with Bing and eventually will overtake Google. People like to be social on social platforms but on search engines? Do we really want everyone to know all about us? Is that the purpose of a search engine or is it to provide comprehensive results? Does this matter anymore or are we just only trusting of our friends and instead of calling, texting or even FB’ing them we would perform a search and see that they +1′d it and immediately trust and run to buy? What if it is someone that we dislike will this dissuade us not to buy? Plus this is saying that we as consumers are much more simple than once thought as we rely upon review sites that have actual reviews and not a +1 that does not have any negativity with a -1 and some commentary.
It just seems that the +1 is catering to the SEO conscious audience and not to the searching audience. Begs the question again of what is in it for the user to click +1? Makes them cool or influential to their friends when they are searching for the same thing? Having no -1 already puts this at a disadvantage as with review sites users can express dissatisfaction. To differentiate Facebook and get people on board to use this, a -1 really would have set it apart and excited users and kept us talking.
Add this all together and this could be a recipe for failure and +1 may end up in the toilet.
Have you installed it on your site? I quickly installed it here with the plug in so it is floating front and center and will monitor its use to decide if the sharing buttons up top will be reconfigured.
What do you think, is Google +1 destined to fail?
Google Lego photo credit: Gayle Laakmann McDowell
