Google has launched the +1 Button with a lot of noise about how it will make discovering new content a little more social.
Google has made an unsuccessful foray into the social sphere with Google Buzz. It had no impact and now we have Google +1 buttons which act as a vote of confidence by users to links on Google search, YouTube and more.
I do not think this new social product from Google will succeed and here are 5 reasons I think which will lead to it’s failure.
Google’s +1 doomed to fail?
- No Originality:
The +1 button seems to be very similar to Facebook’s “Like” or “Share” button. While looking up links or pages on the web we can see if your contacts have also clicked on +1 button for it. The point is if I have a Facebook account, why will I stop using the “Like” button and use “+1”? - Google Profile is not Facebook:
A few geeks and die-hard Google fans are aware of Google Profiles. Beyond that not many even visit their Google Profile once a month (yours truly being one of them). So we can see all the links we like via +1s, on Google Profile. But, the fact is Google Profile is hardly anywhere close to being as interactive and fun as Facebook. - Simple Idea:
When we like something on Facebook, we click on the “Like” button. We do the same with blog posts and even videos. With Google +1, there is no simplicity to it. Sure I can, +1 a video on YouTube, but I can also “Like” or “Dislike” it. So what is the exact idea behind +1 again? - Zero Awareness:
People were aware of Google Buzz, because they introduced it compulsorily in all Gmail accounts. Why would people be aware of Google +1? Chances are most people will simply ignore it altogether. - More Curative than Social:
The whole idea behind +1, seems to be one which will allow people to curate the good links from the bad. If that is the case, expect this feature to be misused. As I made the first point, people do not even visit their profile everyday on Google and hence might not care about clicking on +1 buttons incessantly.
People tend to stay longer on Facebook than they would anywhere else. This is the main challenge for Google. Until it, finds a way to make people stay on Google Search longer than they are now, all its social experiments will inevitably fail.
What are your views on Google +1? Do drop in your comments.
8 Comments
way to go aditya, even I believed that this move of google will fail.
i cant see google’s +1 for this post 🙁
I think Google is trying Reverse Engineering with the Plus One Button, I mean they have first created a So called Search engine social button and than crate a Social Network around it !
Social Networks should have multipurposes and not just link sharing. So reverse engineering is not a good idea for Google.
+1 is a big -100…….
whole point in introducing +1 button might be experimental. Not everything designed by Google is supposedly a market changer. We have 100s of apps in Google labs. but most of them are never used by anyone.
I do not think +1 is like other Google labs experiments. It has been introduced with a lot of fanfare during last month’s Google IO conference.
The +1 was a base they were creating for Google+. Its like you make like before you have FB. In the social media league, Google lacked a social graph of its own (especially post the deal with twitter realtime ended). Google+ and thereby +1 is Google’s attempt to have their own social graph and thereby add social value to its aging link based algorithms.