Google +1 Isn’t a ‘Facebook Like’ Killer
A good number of people instantly saw Google +1 as a competitor for Facebook Like, and while these two features might work the same way, they have two very different purposes.
Facebook’s Like feature is specifically designed to share and recommend content to your circle of friends. Google’s +1 feature is for ads and search results. Aside from the content each product features, there’s a serious flaw in this concept: Why would I care if so-and-so that I spoke to once on Twitter liked some ad or found a particular search result helpful?
Even if you know the person really well doesn’t mean what they find helpful will be helpful for you as well. User intent and the reasons behind a search can be completely different, even if two people have similar interests, are from the same geographic location, or work in the same industry.
The Purpose of +1 Is Money
Google made it very clear in its release of +1 that the main purpose of the program is AdSense and AdWords. When you consider how the system works, it makes sense. With +1, they can generate more information and have a whole range of new factors they can use to determine ad costs and rankings.
When you consider that they added it to the search results, and have made a number of changes in their analytics, AdWords, and AdSense programs, it all seems to fall together. Will it work the way Google thinks it does? I highly doubt it. It has some serious flaws.
Google’s Big Mistake
Google has never done ‘social’ very well. The only thing Google ever truly excelled at was search, and to go from a scientific or academic/information bent to something as variable as social and human interaction is quite a leap. Both disciplines have very different bases and work very differently from each other.
Now, look at the basics of +1. In order to work, it has to actually be used. Will people actually use it? Not likely. You see, in order to know if they like a particular site or know if it will meet their needs, they have to actually visit the website. This means they will click through and load the page over the results they had searched. Will users click the back button to +1 something when they can just as easily share it on a social network or save it in their bookmarks? Not likely.
If Google hopes to have users adopt their +1 system, they need to get people to either stop sharing on social networks and use the +1 buttons instead, or they have to convince people to click the +1 in addition to sharing the site via social networks. Besides, who shares search results? Outside of SEOs and search marketers, Google forgets people share things that interest them and valuable solutions to their problems, not search results.
So, before you get too excited about Google +1 and start adding the soon-to-be released button to your website, think about it and the potential benefits.
What are your thoughts on Google +1?