The announcement by Google that users could flag content or a search result with a “+1” button has been taken by some to be an answer to Facebook’s “like” button. John Bell thinks it is very del.ici.ous-like and that tagging is a natural extension that will follow. Over dinner last night with Ming Yee, SVP at Edelman Digital, he delivered the opinion that Google’s addition of its version of a thumbs-up indicator is a brilliant move to enhance search results — a verification of content and intent that plays to one’s social graph. In essence, he believes this allows Google to socialize search in a very simple, but emphatic way.
I have yet to see a result tagged by any of my Google contacts. But if you are in my Google rolodex and you search on Cotuit, you should see some indication of my recommendation. Twitter and Facebook are sure to follow. John Battelle’s take here.
begs the question…
Is this the first step really humanizing SEO?
They’d have been better served with a vote down button. So we could help remove the spam. Of course then the less scrupulous of the seo crowd would raise their ships by having tons of low paid workers overseas flooding them with vote downs on the competitor sites.
I think Google needs to leverage what they know about us. What we know…where we are subject matter experts. While I relish David’s suggestions on social media, and fishing gear, not so much for new drapery tips.
They’re onto something…and it’s a rare admission that the algorithm isn’t infallible.