Google adding "+1" feature similar to Facebook's "Like" button

[Chuckun]

Google adds "+1" feature similar to Facebook's "Like" button

 

In an attempt to play the game of social networking, Google are adding a feature similar to Facebook's "Like" button to their search results page.

 

You will soon see a "+1" button next to each of the search results on the Google results pages of any search. Not only this, but the +1 button will be added to advertisements as well as search results. This presumably will have an impact on the feedback advertisers get on their adverts.

 

It will also allow Google users to recommend search results they've clicked "+1" to their friends, family, and colleagues via Gmail.

 

Google declared this new feature in a blog post, whereby they stated that the +1 button is a "Digital shorthand for 'this is pretty cool.'" The tool is designed to help friends see which results each other have deemed 'pretty cool' by use of the +1 button.

 

From my own perspective as a web developer, this will cause for interesting discussion and no doubt debate between my fellow workers. This new system means a big change in Google's results algorithm. Previously, search results were organised based on website content relevancy, whereby websites with the best SEO (search engine optimisation) prevailed. More recently though, that was changed due to user visit based results whereby the order of results was sometimes determined by which websites you visit most.

 

But this new feature is surely going to stop SEO abuse, and concentrate the search results on what people actually like, rather than what companies want them to find when they search a certain keyword or string.

 

Source: =F|A=Chuckun @ fearless-assassins.com

[daredevil]

I guess that will take care of those fake shit black hat techniques?

 

Will that +1 will affect overall SERP? If it does then there is also an issue.. the bigger the community the better the SERP will be then.

[Chuckun]

Yeah - Google arent saying that it'll effect global SERPs, but I believe it will. I've always been a firm believer that a system like this would be a good addition to SERPs but even this can be abused if they do involve it in their rankings of websites.

 

It will undoubtedly affect everyone's results as long as they have a google account.. Because then they're linked by their contacts' +1s and other influences.. But I think for now it will not affect SERPs in general. But sooner or later this will undoubtedly have an impact on the general SERPs