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.

[brinked]

7 +1 clicks for thursday vs 124 fb likes

[Atomic]

I keep thinking that over time, if more people are clicking Likes than +1's, it will look as if people are voting for Facebook over Google.

[dstiles]

How many clicks are from bots, legit or otherwise? All? Some? None?

[potentialgeek]

In Google's pdf on this, they show an example of +1 on one web page. The +1 has 122 hits, and it's next to a Like button which has only about 22 hits.

Wishful thinking!

I think the geeks will be the early adopters of this new thing, but in some sectors without a lot of geeks it could be a long time before there are a significant number of +1s. Until then it kind of looks lame to have the button with so few if any +1 hits, especially pages within a site, as opposed to the home page.

For now I'm starting with only home pages on a few sites.

[np2003]

+1 will never take off because people don't want Google to know what they've been searching, where they've been, who their friends are...

[dataguy]

I just stumbled upon an old issue of Fast Company (April issue) which has Larry Page's taking the helm at Google as its cover story.

I find it interesting that one of the main problems they believe Page has is a 'low EQ, or emotional intelligence.' They question whether Google can ever successfully enter the social networking space.

They also give a list of the social sites that Google has bought and destroyed, and a list of employees that left because Google didn't 'get it' and then went on to have huge success... like one of the founders of Twitter, and the founder of Foursquare.

I normally give Big G the benefit of the doubt, assuming they have a solid long-range plan before they do anything. Now I'm beginning to think this +1 thing is as un-useful and un-thought-out as it appears on the surface.

[MrSavage]

Considering that Google is 75% or more of (I always think of it as 90% Google) potential traffic/revenue, wouldn't this be the +1 to care about? Whether people adopt it or not is another thing. Personally it seems complicated to me. People now I think are asking, ok if I click this what am I sending to Google? Privacy issues on the minds of everyone now?

+1 is scary also. Ask yourself, you're going to compete with +1's if you're compared to professional websites with paid professional writers? Seriously? If +1 is used for rankings, then as a low level amateur webmaster, you better damn well hope that Bing gets better numbers.