Google +1 More Questions than Answers

Google recently introduced a new feature to a search engine results page (SERP) called +1. The new button is a combination of social and search. +1 allows users to give a stamp of approval to specific links. Later, friends within their social circle will see the recommendation when they are scanning SERPs. At this point, +1 reveals more questions than answers about how it will work and affect marketing plans.

What is +1?

The announcement came on March 30, via Google’s Official Blog and various other Google sources.

“Today we’re taking that a step further, enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called +1—the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results.”

Facebook Killer
The obvious comparison to Facebook’s Like Button is found throughout the web, with dramatic statement like “Facebook Killer”, “Google’s Answer to Like”, “Facebook copy cat”, and “Death of Facebook Like”. Of course, headlines like that get attention, but the truth is they are just headlines. +1 is no Facebook killer, nor is it attempting to be.

Google’s success started out of simplicity. It became THE search engine of choice, because it was simple and fast. (It did not become successful because it was more accurate, but that’s another blog post for another day.). Simplicity and speed have long been Google’s focus. +1 is another step to simple. A single button next to search results could not be simpler to use.

Google has said multiple times that it intends to integrate more social influence in the search engine results pages. This is another indication of that mission. However, it’s not in direct competition with Facebook. Of course, that may come later, but it’s not here yet.

Not New, Just Shiny
Let’s not pretend that the concept of +1 is new. Message boards and community groups have been using this for years. Sites like Digg¸ Stumbleupon, and Reddit have had link voting for awhile. It’s clearly not a new concept. It’s just something shiny for Google to get back on the top of the minds of marketers and consumers. Google’s +1 now takes this familiar concept and brings it to the first stage of web surfing: the search.

The Long Pay-Off
One of many unanswered questions is how, or if, users will deal with the long pay-off of +1. The Facebook Like button, (again, another comparison) has instant gratification. When you “like” something it’s instantly shared with your friends. The return is quick. That’s not the case with Google +1. When you +1 a page your friends may eventually see it. That’s assuming their future search happens to coincide with your previous search. There are too many variables into that equation. This may result in users not bothering to +1 a link, because of the uncertainty of the return. What’s the pay-off?

Spamming
How Google handles spammers is always an uncertainty. I have to think Google has accounted for this factor, but I am interested to see how this plays out. I have to admit, my first thought when +1 was announced was figuring ways to exploit it for my advantage. If I am thinking that, surely people a lot smarter than me have already taking big steps. I am not worried about this too much. Google has tons of information to evaluate abuse. I’d like to think, and hope, Google is a step ahead of spammers

The Effect on Ads
Google has stated that +1 will be integrated into ads, as well as organic listings. That brings up a whole set of questions from ad management viewpoint. The information is a bit contradictory at the moment.

Google says +1 will not affect Quality Score: “You don’t have to make adjustments to your advertising strategy based on +1 buttons, and the way we calculate Quality Score isn’t changing” – http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/03/1-button-adwords.html

But yet, clearly having +1 will affect click-through rate. In fact, Christian Oestlien, Google’s Group Product Manager for Ads, said basically he expects advertisers to see a higher lift in clicks. (source: http://searchengineland.com/googles-1-a-potential-boon-to-paid-search-marketers-70836) Make sense. However, a higher CTR is a factor when determining quality score. In result, more +1’s may lead to a lower cost for advertisers. So now what?

Oestlien went on to say that organic and paid search shares a commonality with +1. That means that if your AdWords landing page was +1’d in organic listing, the +1 will show next to the ad. Wow! This opens a whole can of worms and possible strategy change. Many advertisers, at least good ones, have unique pages for PPC landing pages. Does those will fall to the waste side? Would it make more sense to send all ads to the home page because that has more +1’s? The short answer is NO, but… how do you compete with those who do? (I’ll stop there and save all this for a later post.)

As you can see, there are many questions still to be answered with Google’s +1. I hesitated writing this post because of the lack of answers at the moment, but I decided to share the questions with you. That leaves us at the wait-and-see stage.

What are your thoughts on +1?