Why Google's +1 button may fail.

Google has launched the +1
Button with a lot of noise
about how it will make
discovering new content a
little more social. Google has made an
unsuccessful foray into the
social sphere with Google
Buzz. It had no impact and
now we have Google +1
buttons which act as a vote of confidence by users to links
on Google search, YouTube
and more. I do not think this new social
product from Google will
succeed and here are 5 reasons
I think which will lead to it ’s failure. Google’s +1 doomed to fail? 1. No Originality: The +1 button seems to be
very similar to Facebook ’s “Like” or “Share” button. While looking up links or
pages on the web we can see
if your contacts have also
clicked on +1 button for it. The
point is if I have a Facebook
account, why will I stop using the “Like” button and use “+1”? 2. Google Profile is not
Facebook: A few geeks and die-hard
Google fans are aware of
Google Profiles. Beyond that
not many even visit their
Google Profile once a month
(yours truly being one of them). So we can see all the
links we like via +1s, on
Google Profile. But, the fact is
Google Profile is hardly
anywhere close to being as
interactive and fun as Facebook. 3. Simple Idea: When we like something on
Facebook, we click on the
“Like” button. We do the same with blog posts and
even videos. With Google +1,
there is no simplicity to it.
Sure I can, +1 a video on
YouTube, but I can also “Like” or “Dislike” it. So what is the exact idea behind +1 again? 4. Zero Awareness: People were aware of Google
Buzz, because they introduced
it compulsorily in all Gmail
accounts. Why would people
be aware of Google +1?
Chances are most people will simply ignore it altogether. 5. More Curative than Social: The whole idea behind +1,
seems to be one which will
allow people to curate the
good links from the bad. If
that is the case, expect this
feature to be misused. As I made the first point, people
do not even visit their profile
everyday on Google and
hence might not care about
clicking on +1 buttons
incessantly. People tend to stay longer on
Facebook than they would
anywhere else. This is the
main challenge for Google.
Until it, finds a way to make
people stay on Google Search longer than they are now, all
its social experiments will
inevitably fail. What are your views on
Google +1? Do drop in your
comments.