It’s fascinating to see Google and Facebook go head to head. The competitor in me loves seeing two giants clashing heads. Late last year Facebook released information on their new email project, one which will revolutionise email (and bring Google Mail down) as we know it. Last week Facebook released information on their new ads product to rival Google Ads. And to think Google is going to celebrate its 13th birthday this year and Facebook their 8th. Shouldn’t they be playing in the playground? I guess the marketplace is their playground.
This week Google announced the +1 product which is set to bring social search to the forefront. Google +1 will show +1 buttons next to all search results and ads. Users will be able to click the +1 button if they approve of the site or the ad. All +1s are public and their tied to Google profiles. How will Google know who has clicked +1? If you have a Google account it will search for contacts through your connections on Gmail, chat buddies, Google docs contacts, calendar contacts and all other Google apps connections and display anyone in your network who have hit +1 and display their name next to the site they’ve approved. It won’t be too long until it incorporates connections outside of Google such as your Twitter connections to ensure the +1 recommendation are as relevant as possible.
The product is set to rival the Facebook like button. There was a proliferation of the like button all over the web last year. Web designers were including it on every new website they possibly could and website owners were updating their websites to include ‘like’ next to almost every piece of content. It’s a handy tool, as a user when you click like it displays the link, thumbnail image and any comments you’ve listed on your profile for you, your network and the world to see. As a website owner you can track which users have liked something on your site and in return start a dialogue.
It will be interesting to see how the product changes websites. I believe it will change the way website owners approach SEO. I think they’re will be a lot more emphasis on review, rating sites. For example if you’ve rated well on review sites and the general audience has approved of you, Google will pick up on that data and also look at the +1 data and then boost ranking.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on progressions.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Do you think this is good or bad move for Google?