Yes, you heard me correctly, and it’s Google who has started it. This “it” is a new experiment called the ‘+1 Button’. But what’s that, you ask? Well to put it simply, think of it as a Facebook ‘Like’ button, only for Google.
The Google / Facebook rivalry is nothing short of a war towards global domination, and not really because of the companies themselves, but because of the countless users around the world who use Google and Facebook on a daily basis… and we’re talking millions upon millions of users.
Now because people use Facebook so much, they also click a very well known little button with the all to familiar “thumbs up” icon on it called, yes, you know it—the ‘Like’ button. Over the past few years Facebook has gathered countless data using this ‘Like’ button and it isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Because of this, Facebook has a huge edge over, well… EVERYBODY to put it plain and simple. With this knowledge Google needed to come up with a social scheme and introduce a way to collect similar data to compete with the 12-headed monster named Facebook. Now they have and it’s called the ‘+1 Button’.
It’s not very hard at all to imagine that less than a year ago META keywords were still the all-important necessity for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on everyone’s websites. Today, Facebook has accordingly ripped that thought right out of it’s proverbial chest and smashed it against the wall of popularity caused by an over abundance of social interactions via the ‘Like’ button. Now with Google‘s hand rising up from the ashes, we have a new enemy (or possible comrade) and after the bugs have been tested and fixed, it will be hitting full-force with no complacent end in sight.
It’s still in the experimental stages and any curious web crawler can try it out. All you need is a Google Profile and the link to the experiment. Try this, http://www.google.com/experimental/
So check it out. See what Google has done for you today, because the future is a big place with lots of space for …everyone?
