+1 Released Outside of US

[Brett_Tabke]

Today, +1’s will start appearing on Google search pages globally. We'll be starting off with sites like google.co.uk, google.de, google.jp and google.fr, then expanding quickly to most other Google search sites soon after.

Adding the +1 button could help your site to stand out by putting personal recommendations right at the moment of decision, on Google search. So if you have users who are fans of your content, encourage them to add their voice with +1!

[googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com...]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

So if you have users who are fans of your content, encourage them to add their voice with +1!

I forecast a new industry - plus one builders. This is terrible.

<shakes head>

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I think it's a good idea actually, for +1 to be next to search results, since I don't see it gaining traction on 3rd party sites.

I also don't see plus one builders becoming a problem since nobody is going to follow them with their gmail account for real anyway. The plus one has to be from someone in your circle or it doesn't show up, or so I'm assuming, so creating a massive circle of fake 'groupies' is pointless.

[edited by: Sgt_Kickaxe at 2:43 pm (utc) on Jun 28, 2011]

[StoutFiles]

I forecast a new industry - plus one builders. This is terrible.

<shakes head>

Then, due to complaints for years, Google will finally penalize people for using obvious plus ones builders. I then forecast a new industry - using plus one builders on the competition.

<shakes head>

[sobole]

I'm gonna put a big +1 on my house too so everyone knows that I'm a goog sheep.

[loner]

I have less intensive idiocy I prefer to deal with.

[walkman]

I think it's a good idea actually, for +1 to be next to search results, since I don't see it gaining traction on 3rd party sites.

Guessing how good the page will be :)? If Goog can't make people add to their sites, +1 is toast. Watch Google to start saying that +1 is crucial...blah blah...add it, we will not penalize you if you don't but...blah blah.

[Web_speed]

Guessing how good the page will be :)? If Goog can't make people add to their sites, +1 is toast. Watch Google to start saying that +1 is crucial...blah blah...add it, we will not penalize you if you don't but...blah blah.

+1 ;)

[tangor]

+1 for the Serp or +1 for the page AFTER visiting page?... uh, wait, isn't there a bit of beg code to be added to slow down your site and pass on all kinds of information to Google?

(Many are dropping Analytics because of speed/intrusion, is this just a different form of the same old thing?)

[walkman]

Not to pick on this alone but they do add up:
Jquery scripts
FB
Twitter
Analytics
Adsense
Linked in
Share buttons
Amazon ads
Other jscript ads
etc etc.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Indeed walkman, perhaps they should be somehow bundled on the client-side. Certainly the topic is worth a new thread of its own.

[Harry]

Considering how Google has ravaged many of us this year - in my case an honest Website with real contents, I'll pass on and refuse to help strengthen Google any further. They ravaged my traffic, I'm not giving them more of myself.

[StoutFiles]

Google's looking really desperate lately. They used to be the innovators, now they're trying to play catchup with everyone (+1, checkout, offers, picasa, etc.). Failing at all fronts so far.

[brinked]

This is googles response to the bing/fb partnership.

I expect +1 to be a major flop just like buzz. Google is trying to be more social but will never get anywhere copying others without bringing anything new to the table. Just because you're google doesn't mean people will love everything you release. Buzz is an inferior product to twitter and +1 will always be inferior to like.

How many people really care what websites there friends like? My friends and family like totally different websites than I. If I really like a website and think it's worth sharing I will "like" it so they can actually see it.

[zeus]

with this plus one they have a better way to collect info also be cause then the user is login, but besides that I also think its a wast of time.

[potentialgeek]

Google is already considering Blocks for rankings. We might have to force ourselves to like +1.

[londrum]

Bing should bring out some +2 buttons. that is what i would do.

[SevenCubed]

We might have to force ourselves to like +1

I'd rather eat razor blades.

And yes zeus I too think that much of these things being pushed out lately is to have a wide variety of ways to get people logged in so they can have access to more tracking through JavaScript. I use a Gmail account in very rare instances for administration of my domain for emergency backup and I noticed that they have recently made the log-out link more difficult to find. Presumably, people will give up and just move to another site thereby keeping them logged in for tracking. I would imagine it's the same across many of their other properties.

This is getting very seriously out of hand. All kidding aside, something needs to be done to address Google's flagrant violation of privacy. The general public have no idea what kind of tracking and profiling they are being subjected to. And it's not limited to Google either.

[Harry]

I may not like Google or Google+ but it would be a big mistake to dismiss the service as inferior or a potential failure similar to Wave and Buzz. It won't be like that. Google+ actually innovates and adds features the average user will like, like more control over their circle of friends and who they share with. Unless Facebook can quickly come up with an alternative, this one will hurt them.

Also, this time Google has learned about managing privacy expectations. They will not screw up the same way they did with Buzz. They are in it for the kill and this product is more than decent.

Having said that, I won't support it out of principle because Google has hurt my business too much. I will not allow them, as a webmaster to make any more money off me. Already removed Analytics years ago,just removed Adsense last month.

Google has lost my trust and my business after having pillaged mine, taken stuff from me for years, without paying, mashing it up and now kicking me in the nuts. I'd be an imbecile to support any more of their products and services, whether they are good or not. No Android, no Google+, no Adsense, no Adwords, no Google Checkout, nothing from Google at all.

[brinked]

Bing already has something in place that is better than +1, it's called like by facebook and it works the same way +1 does (tells you which of your friends liked a website in the SERPS as well as gives a site a boost if one of your friends liked it).

Unlike +1 however, bing only shows websites my friends liked and not everyone who I emailed for the last 6 years. I am sorry google, but I don't think I will like the same websites my programmer from Romania does.

[Bddmed]

Watch Google to start saying that +1 is crucial...blah blah...add it, we will not penalize you if you don't but...blah blah.

Well here it is:

But when you’re managing a website, it's usually not real until you can measure it. So we’re happy to say we’ve got one more announcement to make -- today we’re releasing reports that show you the value +1 buttons bring to your site.

First, +1 metrics in Google Webmaster Tools can show you how the +1 button affects the traffic coming to your pages:
...

[adsense.blogspot.com...]

[walkman]

Google+ actually innovates and adds features the average user will like, like more control over their circle of friends and who they share with. Unless Facebook can quickly come up with an alternative, this one will hurt them.

Let's be honest Harry, there's no innovation in FB /+1. Certainly no innovation like inventing a new chip or the like, just web features and change colors. I am willing to be that FB has dozens of ready to go features and can launch them within weeks. It's (almost...kinda) like FB trying to outdo Google in search, you can bet that Google has teams working on the next-next version of search.

The problem for G is that they need to convince YOU and YOUR FRIENDS to upload everything to Google and create everything from scratch. That's no small task.

[MrFewkes]

Google is trying to be more social.

Google is in reality the gatecrasher at a party to which they are not invited.

They are not clever enough to disguise the fact that they do this for corporate gain - not to please users.

They must be totally thick to think they can outdo FB - what do they imagine? We all want to start from scratch and get into another social network when many of us are getting bored with FB and the whole social thing anyway.

Now - if google started doing something like other up and coming things which are really looking up in trends now - they would earn my respect. LOL I find myself not even wanting to post what google are missing out on - I would HATE to help them.

So - as in the film Saving Private Ryan - "Dont Shoot - Let em Burn"
:)

[azlinda]

I'm removing Google+ from my site. It actually interferes with the print function. It used to be that you didn't encourage people to click on ads on your site...now Google wants you to hit a like button.

[markd]

Has Google now 'jumped the shark'?

To me, Google now feels it needs to play a really bad game of catch up with the Social Media gang, instead of concentrating on what it does (did?) best. I am trying to think of a more inane, insipid invitation to abuse piece of functionality than this - no, can't think of one.

Do I hear the sound of a once great brand being diluted...?

[brinked]

I keep on mentioning what made google so popular when it first launched. At the time most were on dialup and the fact that google was very simple was a big factor in using it as the default search engine.

Yahoo took too long to load with all of its stories, as did hotbot, aj and altavista.

Do we really need social search? I understand the web is much more social these days than it ever was, but do we need to socialize everything?

Google +1 is an inferior product to like, and it likely always will be. A large percentage of people dont even have google accounts, but most of them do have facebook accounts. Google is not social, no matter how many social type features they release, they will never be on the social level that twitter or facebook are and that is a GOOD thing. The only real value +1 would have is if they actually used it as a ranking factor like links and not just an increase for searches your "social circle" made. This would even take a lot of work to make sure it cant be manipulated.

I just don't see it being useful now or at any time in the future. I could be wrong.

[lucy24]

It's just another category to ignore in gwt. "+1 Metrics" showed up yesterday. (Give or take.)

Now if they could only explain what it's intended to do in real life. The people who find my site in search engines don't know each other. If they did, they'd be asking "Do you know how to X?" or "What does Y mean?" Or e-mailing to say "Wow! Bookmark this page!" No g### involvement.

:: trying and failing to form mental picture of Leading Authorities In Their Fields dutifully placing a +1 next to sites containing information they find reliable ::

[londrum]

the problem for google is that 'searching' is not a social event. it is a personal thing. people dont search together. they search for stuff that they themselves want to know.

its completely different with facebook, because everything about facebook is social.
people click the 'like' button because they want it to appear on their wall for people to see. there is an actual point behind it. there is no point with the +1 button. people dont get anything out of it, other than helping google rate a site -- a site which they might never return to again in the lives.

google are trying to shoehorn in a load of social stuff where it doesnt fit.

[brinked]

lucy24,

you could not have said it any better.

+1

[walkman]

Now if they could only explain what it's intended to do in real life. The people who find my site in search engines don't know each other. If they did, they'd be asking "Do you know how to X?" or "What does Y mean?" Or e-mailing to say "Wow! Bookmark this page!" No g### involvement.

Add our f^%$*/# +1 button you moron webmaster, help us catch FB or else....

That's what's supposed to really say. It hints you will lose rank, unless you, no?