Yesterday Google announced the launch of Plus One. This will allow Google users to recommend sites and share them with friends. Clearly this is their answer to Facebook's ubiquitous 'Like' button. It's yet another foray for Google into social media territory after the disappointments of both Buzz and Wave.Google's +1 button will be placed on their search results and even on publisher's/content pages. However the key question is how and where that recommendation is shared?
Google have said that initially +1 will only be accessible to a small proportion (c2%) in the US and that logged-in Google users will be able to share their recommendations via Gmail, Good Reader and Buzz.
But that, by default, limits both its appeal and its audience. Apparently a integration with Twitter is on the cards - but Google seem tight lipped about Facebook integration.
And that's the key issue - Facebook has become such a dominant platform that other social media tools need to plug into it to drive scale quickly. Just look at Path one of the newest entrants into the social networking space - they rapidly had to use Facebook integration to spread the word and bring in new users to their platform.
Additionally Facebook's 'Like' function has evolved over the last few years and drives user interaction at a number of levels - creating Fans for pages plus driving content sharing via a user's Newsfeed. Will +1'ing (terrible verb!) really be a useful interaction for a user?
+1 on it's own won't make Google's Buzz a credible social platform, and without a credible social platform what's the point of it?
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1 comment:
Agree - however, if +1 is also used to enhance search results, something Google have a monopoly on, then it becomes a lot more interesting. I'm likely to like things my friends like. So when searching, if their preferences are taken into account within the ranking this might make for more relevant results.
Still need to get someone to press the button though - and that will be a key challenge on its own.
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