inbound - 12:00 am on Sep 21, 2011 (gmt 0)

This is idiotic, they are making it possible to +1 an ADVERT! Don't they have any idea, they just don't think what people will do to game the system.

In order to know whether to +1 an ad, surely a user needs to click on the ad, visit the target site (and see that the advert leads to a good deal) THEN they need to go back to the previous site to see if that same advert shows up again! That's going to mess up stats for a start...

Alternatively, you'll get people +1'ing ads before they see if the site has what is suggested - hence you will get companies gaming the system; a kind of bait and switch. Make adverts seem to offer amazing stuff (with small T&C's), then let the T&C's deal with why most people don't get the deal (which is likely to be front loading the people who do get a good deal and then riding the high +1 score until the ad runs its course).

How will this change CTR for most ads? I'm guessing it'll be massively negative AND it'll make ads look really rubbish. All ads will start with a +1 score of 0... Doesn't inspire confidence (and users will wonder why the +1 has come up...). Als, they think your friends will like an advert because you +1 it! Have they learned nothing about social yet?

On top of this they are testing this all out using our advertising space and not paying for it...