Well of course Google has to ignore everything I have been saying for ages now, plus the rest of the authorities in the SEO industry... and go create their own version of Facebook Likes. Google is known for hiring the most talented and smartest people on the planet, so how come they are reinventing the wheel?!
Reinventing the Wheel
The answer to the question is easy, POLITICS! Facebook is the second largest website in the world, according to Alexa.com. It is the largest social networking site out there with 600 million users according to MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40929239/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/). So why in the world would Google not use Facebook's data stream, find out how many Likes a website or product has, and mix that into their algorithm? Did you really have to go out of your way and great the +1 Button?
It's all about money!
The problem with Google is that they think the market is just a pie, a fixed pie that can't grow, so they have to fight over their market share. Obviously Google hates Bing for being so successful and to this date grabbing 13% of market share. This means losing some advertisers who choose to go with Bing rather than Google's AdWords program. Why did I mention Bing? Well, it is because Facebook announced that they will be using Bing as their primary search engine, and Google is hurt and heart broken over this.
Reason number two is that Google and Facebook are both advertising platforms. As a company, you may choose to advertise on either one of these website or both if you have a bigger budget. Here is where Google loses to Facebook: For you to use Facebook, you have to be logged in. So Facebook knows pretty much everything about you since you are on that website 23 hours per day. They know what your interests are, where you live, who your friends are, what your friends like, what you like, the history of your likes, your behavior, who your family members are (if you have specified them), etc. and the list goes on. Facebook pretty much knows EVERYTHING about you. They probably know you more than you know yourself through the data they collect from your account on a daily basis.
On the other hand, you don't have to be logged into Google to run a search, I mean that would just be too hard to do if Google worked like that. So they don't really have too much data to play with. Well yes they do track your account if you are logged in, and sure they do install cookies on your computer but they don't have nearly as much data on you as Facebook does...
So what?
Well, this means as advertisers, you can narrow down your target market and literally pin point the people you want your ads to appear for. This means $$ because you don't waste your money advertising to people that are not likely to buy from you. So it all makes sense or Google to be jealous and hate Facebook, I guess I would too.
This is why Google goes way out of their way to create the +1 Button for people to do the same thing they do on Facebook. Google, I love you guys, but I am telling you, this would be a big fail, like most other projects you start! Like the commenting feature you guys release couple of years ago. This would be a fail and you will have to drop it like the SUPER EXCITING Google Wave project you guys had.... why did you discontinue that?! I was looking forward to a revolutionary product to be the next generation email service.... oh yes, that's right... we do have something like that and it is called Facebook!
Dear Google, please just stick with what you do best. Stop trying to be like Microsoft and think you can do everything yourself. I learned this the hard way as a kid that I can't do it all by myslef and I have to use other people's resources to be better at what I do best. Just get the data stream from Facebook, combine it and cross check it with twitter and social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, etc. and add that in to your algorithm to rank the most valuable sites.
Likes vs. Links
It would be a genius idea to use Facebook likes as a factor to rank websites because black hat SEO companies out there are buying links and doing every little dirty trick out there to get more links. But, if Google was looking for Likes, it is very hard to get Facebook likes. It is at least 10 times harder for obvious reasons.
+1? Really?
I am just dying to know who actually came up with the name... +1? Really?! This is the most creative idea the genius team of Google could come up with? What does it even mean? So if it was three people that liked the site, it would be +3? So your +1 Button would be +3? I am not sure how this could work or if this would make any sense. If I called my friend and wanted her to like my site, how odd would I sound if I said "Hey, can you +1 my site?" At least Like makes sense because I am liking the site or the page but +1, I am not sure...
My Disclaimer
Don't get me wrong, I am huge Google lover... After all, Google defined my career and I have it all because of Google but it is like having a friend who is great 99% of the times and 1% he makes the most ridiculous mistakes. And as a great friend, I have to call them out on it because I want the best for them!
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
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ReplyDeleteGoogle+1 button similar to Facebook's Like button?
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