Google hasn’t been on the kind of slippery slope it has been in the past few months. A loud and wide spread condemnation of their poor search results has been resonating loud and clear in the blogosphere like never before. There are way too many spammy results when you perform a Google Search and it’s also evident that Google is hardly doing anything to make it better, primarily due to the fear of losing AdWords revenue — their lifeline.
With the advent of curated search engines like Blekko and the rising influence of Facebook and Twitter, Google is in a rather uncomfortable spot. Google is now trying to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible. One recent attempt at achieving that goal is Google +1.
Overview
For some time now, Google has been actively integrating more information from people you know — stuff they’ve shared on Twitter, Flickr and other sites — in the search results. The social sharing nature of our generation is really straining the plain old Google algorithm. But, taking polished information from third party sources can only go so long.
Adding +1
Hence cometh Google +1. Google +1 does just one thing — it enables you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results and advertisements. To recommend something that is useful, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage link or ad that you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results. It’s called +1 because it represents the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool”.
How it Helps
The beauty of +1 is their relevance; you get the right recommendations (because they come from people who matter to you), at the right time (when you are actually looking for information about that topic) and in the right format (your search results).
For example, you are planning to buy a smartphone. There are just so many of them these days and you couldn’t decide for yourselves. But, your college going cousin has a spiffy phone and has voted +1 to the product page. Problem solved for ya!
Recommended by Others
Google uses many social signals (what a fantastic word!) to identify the most useful recommendations, including things like the people you are already connected to through Google. In the future, they plan to incorporate your connections on other sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible.
Enabling +1
Google +1 is being slowly rolled out and is not yet available globally. If you can’t wait to start seeing +1’s, you can try to opt in by visiting their experimental search site. While I was able to enable it. I couldn’t get it to work. Maybe, it’s not ready for everyone just yet.
Joining the Experiment
If you have access to see +1’s in your Google search results you’ll need to be logged into your Google Account. To get started +1’ing the stuff you like, you’ll need to create a Google profile. Once all that’s done, from your profile page, you have access to all of your +1’s in one place and you have the option to delete those recommendations you no longer consider relevant.
What’s Next?
Initially, +1’s will appear alongside search results and ads, but in the coming weeks they will start showing up in many more places (including other Google products and sites across the web). Yep, just like the Facebook Like button.
Except for a few cute Kitty Cat videos, Facebook likes are pretty much useless and lose their relevance as soon as they are liked. But, Google +1 button has the potential to make search better for everyone. The real problem for Google is to make people click on the +1 button. Let us wait and watch how story this unfolds.
Share Your Thoughts!
Do you think +1 is Google’s silver bullet? After a few days, do you see yourself voting up on search results regularly?