Factor 3: Applied Creativity

Google +1, Facebook 0

  It has been a big news fortnight in the world of social media. First, news reports that people are starting to leave Facebook by the million and, secondly, Google’s official release of its anticipated +1 system. What does this say about the future of search and social media? As happens so often in the world of online, the boundaries are well and truly starting to blur. +1 is getting the hype, but many of Google’s services have been improved and overhauled in the past six months as many site owners will be aware.

Google’s quest for full-spectrum online domination has been ongoing since it became the number one search engine. They’ve extended their offering no end since those early days, introducing increasing layers of innovation in terms of services for web users, services to site owners and opportunities for advertisers. When Google Video couldn’t dent the success of YouTube, it simply purchased its competitor and that was that. It left that decision until it was too late where Facebook was concerned and the greatest geek rivalry since Microsoft vs Apple began.



A war of words and ideals

Facebook have been enjoying their dominant position for several years now and the language from their PR department has been increasingly aggressive towards Google, with such claims that “Facebook will replace search engines”, with friend recommendations determined to become more powerful purchasing triggers than returned search results. They’ve claimed that brands will move towards offering eCommerce via Facebook rather than utilising individual sites and also claimed the same where campaign micro sites were concerned. On that last point, in some circles, that transition has already happened.

Basically, Facebook have taken a different approach to what the web is, what users will continue to expect and have been adamant that their approach, not Google’s, is the web’s future. However, Facebook’s continued controversial security policy updates and Orwellian new technologies (auto face recognition and smart tagging – say no more) have proven too much for some of its audience to stomach and this has lead to its numbers starting to decline. What perfect timing for Google to ‘fight back’.

Don’t get me wrong, Google have courted controversy themselves in recent months, having claimed that privacy is a dying relic of a bygone era and we should all just accept it. Of course these claims were in no way related to its intended use of your search/browsing trends and the content of your gmail emails to determine what adverts to serve you! The philosophical debate about when data gathered to serve you becomes data gathered to serve the corporation has drawn a line in the sand between businesses and consumers. When is the use of the data you leave more intrusive than helpful? That debate will continue to rage on (and the Government will continue to determine how best to intervene), and the line will continue to be redrawn, over the coming years.

So how does this relate?

Back to the big question... what will the impact of the +1 button be? Well, on the surface it’s not revolutionary. Google is simply responding to what audiences now demand, thanks to its rivals. Over the last couple of years, the importance Google has placed on web page likes and shares has continued to grow, with social activity now firmly embedded as part of an SEO strategy. It was only a matter of time before Google stormed in with its own solution.

Google already offers end users profiles, email, instant messaging, location services, news, photo library publishing (via Picassa) and shopping. Isn’t this already a mirror of what Facebook offers its users? Status updates and the ability to ‘like’ and ‘share’ are the only things Facebook has had over Google. Of course, the ways these elements are tied together are dramatically different at present, but I’m sure Google will move to further integrate these individual aspects of its offering in the fullness of time.

So, status updates. They’re quite interesting on Twitter, but on Facebook I’m tired of knowing what my friends had on their toast for breakfast in the morning, or publically arguing with their spouses, or letting me know they’re currently bored. If Google never serves this tedium then personally, I’d find it a relief, and just talking amongst friends and peers, there seems to have been a consensus on this point for quite some time.

‘Likes’, on the other hand, serve two useful purposes for FB users and it will be interesting to see how this develops in a +1 context. Firstly, likes display brand affinity to peers. Where music, TV programmes, fashion brands and films are concerned, these reveal something of taste and personality (outward social benefit). Where liking businesses or products is concerned, it helps us feel up-to-date with the things we deem important to us (inward social benefit). Whether the outward and inward benefits of +1-ing websites, web pages and products creates new social benefits, or simply mirrors what Facebook offers, is yet to be seen.

Introducing this functionality serves Google in a myriad of ways. It will encourage those parts of its user base that simply search, to sign up for a Google account. Google offers a convenience that Facebook simply cannot offer, because Google has the world’s best search, and search is still a more pivotal tool than a social network in our daily personal and professional lives.

Google's huge advantage

Even if Google isn’t your browser’s default launch page, chances are your search bar is incorporated in your browser and uses Google as your default choice. If you search directly from the address bar (as many people do these days) then most people are still more likely to see Google results than any other search engine. So if all roads lead back to Google, and Google now offers similar benefits in terms of personal community as well as global information access, it is immediately poised to level the play field. The fact that +1's can also be tracked via Analytics/Webmaster tools in itself will endear site owners towards Google given the integration with other measurement matrices.

The other huge benefit Google has over Facebook is of course the fact that corporate networks can, and do, block Facebook in the work place. They can't, however, block access to a search engine. This emphasises the blurring of boundaries and presents a whole new host of headaches to corporations and their IT teams, to make sure that time online remains 'productive'.

How will this change the social landscape? How will this change the way Google serves your search results? What will be the impact of this on SEO and PPC? Will this make the digital world a better place or are we losing some of the internet’s power in its neutrality? In the early days, the internet literally put the world at our fingertips. As it has grown (and boy has it grown) there has had to be SOME way to filter the relevant from the irrelevant; the desirable from the couldn’t-care-less. However, ‘filtering’ on any level can empower us, or help hide what censors would rather we didn’t see. This entire topic is a pandora’s box, but is all the more relevant given these latest developments.

It is very early days for +1, and the beginning of yet more interesting times for online marketers. Let us all embrace this new opportunity and see where the chips may ultimately fall.