Google Rolls Out the +1 Button - parallels the Facebook "Like"

[RonPK]

[googleblog.blogspot.com...]

We’ll be slowly rolling out +1’s, starting in English on Google.com. [..] Initially, +1’s will appear alongside search results and ads, but in the weeks ahead they’ll appear in many more places (including other Google products and sites across the web).

To me it seems unpractical to first visit a site and then go back to the SERP to +1 it. So I guess there will soon be buttons for publishers too.

[JohnRoy]

how quickly can I get an offshore server set up? No reason.

Yeah--a new way for folks to try a rank boost.

imho, this will have no impact on ranking.

It's just another cloud passing through.

Makes some noise, gets some folks busy, but no impact.

~~~~

Whatever happened to having a quality site being all you needed.

Was and remains all you needed.

[albo]

So what's wrong with +1? Just persuade all yer employees to get gmail accounts and +1 yer website. And their friends and families too. (And one person can have more than one gmail account, of course, so long as the name's not taken...) Their next 1% raise depends on it!

Send me your URL: I'll +1 you from 5 gmail addresses for one hundredth of a cent each.

[edited by: albo at 11:30 pm (utc) on Mar 30, 2011]

[TheMadScientist]

Why stop at 1 albo?

Employee Reviewer: ... and how many gmail accounts do you have?
Employee: 4 ... I've also +1ed each page of our site on each account...

Employee Review: Okay, let me have a look at our incremental +1 pay scale for a moment...

[brotherhood of LAN]

Here we go...

- Remember not to spam your +1's all at once, Google will detect it as unnatural. Vote them incrementally.
- Get your +1's from different class Cs
- Look at the natural growth of +1s in your industry.

etc etc.

Joking aside, I would consider this idea "duplicate content".

[TheMadScientist]

Joking aside, I would consider this idea "duplicate content".

LMAO ... So was AdSense ... and Buzz ... and Gmail ... and [other copied ideas with no innovation go here] ... They're great at copying a good idea, and even improving on some of them, but they sure do copy quite a bit, imo...

[zerillos]

This +1 thing is not new with G. They had this in their experimental program a couple of years back, but then it was digg-styled (smth in the lines of +1/-1).
At that time, digg was the hot new thing, now it's facebook...

[Pjman]

In my market, barely anyone has a google (gmail) account. So to me it's just equivalent to Google Buzz; unless.

[Reno]

Out with quality, in with popularity.

Yep ~ another dumb gimmick. I hardly know what to say about Google anymore other than there are too many engineers with too much time on their hands.

For anyone who has not yet read the following critique by a former Google employee, it is highly recommended:

What Larry Page really needs to do [slacy.com]

.........................

[outland88]

This thread is just too funny. For a moment it reminded me of “Resident Evil” and the Umbrella Corporation.

[Dan01]

From the blog - it sounds like their attempt to compete with Facebook. My wife was telling me that to use that +1 you need to share your interests with the rest of the world. For instance - in the video it said you are sharing this with your family and friends "and the rest of the world".

Either way, you will need to create a Google profile.

This concerns me:

"We’ll also start to look at +1’s as one of the many signals we use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, including social signals from other services. For +1's, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality over time"

Like someone said, this is easily gamed AND it gives the high traffic sites the advantage, even if they have thin or irrelevant content.

[skunker]

+1

[y0z2a]

Ted,

You can sign up for the +1 Button for your site notifications here:

[services.google.com...]

/y0z

[edited by: y0z2a at 2:20 am (utc) on Mar 31, 2011]

[crobb305]

It does look like the +1 button is coming soon.

[TheMadScientist]

I wonder if I'll be able to deplus a plusone I've previously plussed but no longer feel like plussing?

If I can, maybe they'll put 'Welcome to Google the emotionally driven search engine' somewhere...

[realmaverick]

Hmm interesting. Another way for my competition to attempt to manipulate the SERPS. Gotta love it.

[Nuttakorn]

Google might have +1 in Chrome extension as well , that's good thing because visitors already seen the full content after they land on the page and decide whether +1 or not or perhaps in the future will have another sentiment -1.

[y0z2a]

these already exists in chrome...

Anti spam one is called (Called Google Webspam Report (by Google))

and there is the personal block list extension as well: (Called Personal Blocklist (by Google))

/y0z

[edited by: y0z2a at 3:11 am (utc) on Mar 31, 2011]

[realmaverick]

If they ever have a -1. I think I'd give up on the internet. My competitors are a bunch of pillocks. They'd no doubt have their 15 million members visit my site and click the - button.

[tedster]

@Nuttakorn - yes, I agree. Having a +1 on the web page makes a lot of sense to me, even if Google is late to the party. And they do say that implementation is coming.

However, this initial roll-out is in the the SERPs, next to organic and PPC results. So what does Google think people will do, click +1 before they even see the landing page? Go to the landing page and then go back to the SERPs? Seems pretty daft to me.

[TheMadScientist]

Go to the landing page and then go back to the SERPs?

Maybe it's there so when people do that they can click +1 on all the results they didn't visit, because if they go back to the SERPs they probably didn't find the answer? lol

It's probably actually a really good idea to get people used to the idea, seeing that it exists, and talking about it ... From a user POV it's about useless, from a 'How do we let a whole bunch of people know this exists and get them used to seeing the button, so they recognize what it is and know what it does on a site' POV, it's really, really smart, imo.

[edited by: TheMadScientist at 3:36 am (utc) on Mar 31, 2011]

[ken_b]

So what does Google think people will do, click +1 before they even see the landing page?

I imagine that is exactly what quite a few people will do as soon as they understand what the +1 is all about.

Those are likely to be the folks that put a domain name in the search box rather than in the address bar.

They click the +1 for the site they are heading for, if it's already one of their preferred sites.

[Planet13]

It would seem that the Plus One button has left most of us quite nonplussed...

[Reno]

Like someone said, this is easily gamed

Look for prominent notices on pages that say something like "Go back and give us a +1 at Google and we'll show you Kim Widgets latest bikini pic!"

Gets my attention...

......................

[indigojo]

Loved this company once but far out, they're losing the plot more and more of late...why do they feel the need to compete in every arena!

[viggen]

So what does Google think people will do, click +1 before they even see the landing page? Go to the landing page and then go back to the SERPs?

...G. is going to Iframe us in About.com style and we all can go home...

[CMidd]

another FAIL by google. this will never take off.

People don't like before they visit a site.

webmaster won't put Google +1 above a Facebook like/Share.

Google doesn't have enough data to determine who's in you real network of friends and family.

Spammers and SEO Black hats will abuse it.


Facebook needs a search engine ASAP

[CMidd]

Facebook like buttons post onto users wall, and send instant traffic. +1 won't do anything. Google already have "Stars" ratings.

who would trade off a Google "digg style" like button, that doesn't bring traffic over a Facebook like/share that will deliver traffic.

Google should pay for Facebook Social Graph data instead. They should make a Google Search for Facebook.

I hate when companys act as competitors, when they could come together and make something so much better.

Google Search, with Facebook Connection would rock.

[Lexur]

...they are aiming to bribe webmasters to promote their network by sticking the buttons on their own sites eventually.

Ditto.

[tedster]

Facebook needs a search engine ASAP

And Facebook tells us that is not in the cards - see Facebook Search test? [webmasterworld.com]

[zdgn]

Google has been and will always throw everything to see what sticks.

If something succeeds, great! If not, sorry at least we tried - moving along...

For them, I think when success can be determined with statistical algorithms on data of astronomical proportions, it's foolish not to test everything and anything.