Making search social
Google has come up with its version of the famous Facebook ‘like' button. Google calls it ‘+1' and refers to it as the digital shorthand for ‘this is pretty cool.' It seems to be an attempt to introduce a ‘social' element to searching with Google.
Google users will be able to vote +1 on search results they find useful, and to share that preference with their connections in Gchat, Gmail, Google Reader, Buzz and, maybe very soon in Twitter too. Since people will find your recommendations from you while they are looking for them, Google's attempt will certainly reduce the number of emails.
"When someone recommends something, that's a pretty good indicator of quality," said Matt Cutts, Google's principle engineer for search. "We are strongly looking at using this in our rankings." The company introduced Google Social Search in 2009 and made numerous improvements since then. However, this is the first time Google has added a direct social signal into its search result.
Google's +1 will work for advertisers too. Google expects that personalized annotations will help users know when your ads and organic search results are relevant to them, increasing the chances that they'll end up on your site. Speaking to AdAge, Google ads group product manager Christian Oestlien said "Our belief is that advertisers will see increased performance from ads with personalized annotations."
The move will now increase rivalry between Google and Facebook, who have traditionally operated on different spheres of the search world. According to WSJ, Google also plans to infuse other services, including its YouTube and Picasa among others.
The report noted that Google also worked on creating the infrastructure needed to let users play online social games, such as those made by Zynga. , However, It's unclear whether such a system, which already exists on Facebook, will materialize.
What is far from clear is whether there is any demand for the introduction of a social element to searches, as people are likely to actually look at a piece of content before recommending it to their social circle.
Furthermore, with Facebook and Twitter already so dominant in social media, Google faces an uphill task persuading users they need another. Especially since the primary beneficiary of this network will be Google itself, with yet more information about your behaviour to help it tailor ads, on top of things like trawling your Gmail for keywords.
"Google can't afford to limp in with this +1 approach, given its track history with failing at social," said Adam Bunn, director of SEO at search marketing firm Greenlight "However, were Google to buy Twitter that would perhaps make Google more exciting on the social front and +1 suddenly more disruptive. Greenlight will be interested to see just how this will fit into some wider strategy."
To start +1ing, you'll first have to create a Google profile-or if you already have one, upgrade it. You can use your profile to see all of your +1's in one place, and delete those you no longer want to recommend. However Google might have restricted +1 to the US for now. Here's a vid.
