
 +1’s: the right recommendations right when you want them—in your search results - Anon84
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendations-right-when-you.html
======
giberson
I really surprised at Google by this implementation--it seems like they didn't
really think it through.

When I'm searching for something, my behavior is usually:

    
    
         Google search term
         Open the top couple results in a new tab
         Check each tab, to see if they contain the information I was looking for
         If tab is not useful, or more information is required, check next tab. 
         If information is satisfied, close window (all tabs, including search)
         If no tabs remain, and still need more information, return to search page and check next results.
    

That process has been in place since I upgraded to firefox from ie6 all those
years ago. Before then, my search process consisted of:

    
    
         Google search term
         Check first result link
         If information has been satisfied, close window.
         If more information is needed, go BACK, check next link.
    

My point is, Google search is a launching platform. I typically only go back
to the results page when the result didn't provide the information I was
looking for. In order to use the feature, I'd have to alter my process to
include a return trip to the results page, find the link that led to the page
I found interesting and then +1 it. No way this is gonna happen. Ever.

The only way I see this feature being implemented in a workable solution is as
a browser addon--so that when I'm on a page that I find particularly awesome
[whether I found it via search results or by following some page link] I can
click on the +1 toolbar button.

Such an implementation would I think would also enhance the result set of
affected links. In it's current implementation I'll only find plus one's when
I just happen to be searching for the same or similar thing as some one from
my social circle. Where as as a browser extension I'll find plus ones for any
page that any one in my social circle has visited and found interesting
regardless of if they ever issued a query for that subject matter.

~~~
ch0wn
The video hinted that they plan to provide embeddable +1 buttons in style of
Facebook's "Like". Considering that, +1 can actually be useful because you
would be able to see recommendation from your google contacts.

~~~
farlington
Except the nomenclature is so nerdy. You can't really say it out loud. Like is
a nicely descriptive verb; 'plus one' is a phrase you see on a formal event
invitation.

~~~
ry0ohki
That's exactly what I thought, a "Facebook Like" ripoff with a nerdy name.

~~~
barista
Google slapping social features on search is eerily similar to Microsoft
adding internet capabilities to its desktop applications. Neither of them got
it right the first time.

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aero142
I still don't get this. What does my social circle have to do with my Google
searches. I am friends with lots of people who I don't trust to influence my
search results. The Hunch approach makes a lot more sense where it uses
recommendations of people who have similar tastes to me. People I am friends
with is not a good proxy for people who's opinion I care about when searching
for camera documentation, or dog breeds, or Python libraries, or anything at
all. I hope I'm proven wrong, but I just don't see it.

~~~
diegob
I think it would be more useful to show +1's from people who have similar
search histories to you. That way if you search a lot for Python libraries and
+1 useful content, the next guy doing a search for that will get useful
recommendations. I don't see how non-techie people in your social circle could
contribute in that regard.

~~~
bad_user
Problem with finding similar people with similar preferences in Google's data
is that the similarity matrix of any 2 people is very sparse.

I search for Python-stuff a lot, but I also search for stuff related to things
I want to buy, or for people, or for my hobbies -- photography and now
drawing.

The algorithm for finding similar people is going to have to be very smart
(i.e. it should not rely on URLs alone), if at all possible.

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zzzmarcus
I can't ever remember doing a search for something where one of the results
was so cool that I thought "hey, I'd like to share this search result with
everyone I know!" or even "hey, I'd like everyone I know to know that I think
this search result is cool!" If I was going to share something it would a. be
the actual page, not just the search result, and b. likely not shared with my
friends and the general public, but with a specific friend or co-worker or a
small group of people.

A search result is so disconnected from your social circle that it's hard for
me to understand how this ever made it past prototyping. Search results aren't
like party pictures or baby pictures or what you had for breakfast or anything
people share on Facebook or Twitter. They're generally not even answers to
questions, they're just potential answers. The answer itself is what you'd
like to share.

Clicking +1 on an ad seems ridiculous to me for all the same reasons as above,
plus the additional reason that I would be embarrassed to share any ad that
wasn't superbowl-funny or a direct savings ($5.00 off a movie or something)
and I've never seen an Adsense ad come close to either of those. Sharing any
other ad is just spamming your friends.

~~~
Cossolus
I think the reality of how +1 will be used will be more like this: you see
your list of search results. The first three are so-so and the fourth one is
great. You think to yourself "why the hell was the great result not at the
top?" and then click the +1 button to promote it. Google uses this info as a
signal, both globally and for your circle of friends.

I think it could work, as long as it's not gamed into uselessness.

------
jhuckestein
Call me skeptical, but I'm not convinced by Google's partial rollout of their
new social layer.

A while ago they rolled out the new top-bar and a little later they rolled out
the new profiles and now this. It all kind of makes sense, but there is no
killer app/driver for all these features.

The number of integration points seems to be a problem, too. Until last week
Google Mail, Reader and Groups all used different revisions of the "Google
bar" on top. Disabling Google Buzz in Gmail also removes your new shiny
profile, etc..

I'm anxious to see where this is going.

~~~
abraham
Google as a whole is the killer app. They are just finally getting around to
iterating through integrating their different products together.

------
naz
I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand, Google should have done this
years ago, even if it had no effect on result placement, think of all the data
they could have collected. On the other hand, the big appeal of Google is the
simplicity and minimal clutter, and this is just another useless (at least on
the first search) thing added to the interface.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
I think they've done this a few times, I remember there used to be an up and
down arrow in search results, but they abandoned that a while back.

~~~
reemrevnivek
You could also add stars, and taglines...this is just another iteration.

------
todd3834
Facebook "Like It". Google "+1". Assuming Google A/B tests just about
everything, I'm surprised "+1" seemed like the winning choice. I don't hate
it, I'm just surprised...

~~~
5l
The problem with 'liking' something, which would be especially acute on
Google, is that it just sounds downright wrong for some things. Perhaps you're
looking for news on the Japanese Tsunami. No, I don't 'like' it. Yes, it's
relevant to what I'm looking for.

~~~
flyt
Facebook's Like button can be either "Like" or "Recommend", and publishes the
selected verb into news feed. Many news sites use recommend for this exact
reason (NYT, for example).

~~~
rakkhi
Still valid argument on the meaning of the like or recommend verbs in certain
contexts. Eg someone may write something I disagree with and I don't want to
like or recommend it but I may +1 for being articulate or a point well made.
Geek in me and maybe too many q&a sites but I think +1 works

------
nanoanderson
This is heading in the right direction, but I remain skeptical of the simple
"you're connected to this person through some service (probably unconnected to
the search query), so you trust them" symbol as the main recommendation
symbol. This is one way Color actually interests me, they're exploring new
symbols for connection, even if I think they're kind of weird and hard to
understand at first glance.

Won't know for sure until I try it though.

~~~
tealtan
I don't know how well this +1 thing will work, because as many others have
noted, it's not passive. I have to actively click on it, and that's not
something I think about when I'm running a search.

The you're connected to this person thing, however, has worked out quite well
for me. A lot of the time, I'm looking for something that someone I follow on
Twitter shared - and it just bubbles up for me. I'm a fan.

------
HowardRoark
Thank you Google for trying out. But it doesn't look like something I am going
to use because most of my social contacts don't have a clue about my
professional life - which is what I am searching for mostly.

------
mcobrien
Unfortunately, Google just doesn't know enough about my social graph to make
this much more than a noisy list of strangers and site owners trying to game
the system.

They say they "may" "soon" incorporate your connections on sites "like"
Twitter which would be an improvement but from the language it sounds like
they haven't even talked to Twitter about it yet.

Of course they don't mention Facebook, who do know my social graph and are
busy collecting Likes around the web that they can use to build a robust,
trustworthy recommendations product. It's going to be hard for Google to build
the assets they need to avoid ceding part of the search market to Facebook.

------
waxman
Social search is likely _the_ next killer app. The tastes of my friends are
far more relevant to me than the judgement of bots.

The question is, who will do it better: Google or Facebook? The search engine
or the social graph?

~~~
MatthewPhillips
Have you really thought this through? For example, here are 3 possible search
queries:

1) Is Blockbuster Movie any good?

Here the opinions of your friends might be more valuable to you, as valuable
to you, or less valuable to you, depending on how important it is to you to
have the same taste as your friends or whether you consider their movie tastes
similar to your own.

2) Courtship rituals of early-modern spain

Here the opinions of your friends are almost certainly less relevant than that
of a bot, unless you run in a very niche circle.

3) Directions to Skyline Chili

Here the bot is almost definitely a better choice than your friends.

Lastly, you always have to fall back to a bot because most searches are not
going to have many results that friends have actively curated. So bots will
continually have a place in search, and I would argue will because more
important over time, as they become smarter.

~~~
moultano
Are you from Cincinnati?

~~~
MatthewPhillips
No, KY. We have Skyline here too (though I'm not a fan!)

------
direxorg
If it is going to affect search ranking than it is the time to build network
of professional (+1) recommenders with whole bunch of profiles with fake
pictures and googleplex of "friends" build via social gaming. Basic package
+1000 for your search term on 30th page to move it up a notch $99.99. Does
domain name GooZynga available? :-) Anybody want to apply late for that
project - it is a future of a Social Search... :-) You know "next big thing"
:-)

------
jrnkntl
April +1

------
iamelgringo
Dear Google,

It's been great knowing you for all these years, but you're really starting to
creep my out.

I've trusted you with my 1,000 contacts in my email system. I've trusted you
because you've said repeatedly that you're not going to be evil. I've trusted
you with what I'm saying in my emails, because you've said repeatedly that no
one really reads my email, you just automatically scan it and provide
"helpful" ads.

And then, you gave me a really shiny phone, and I was in love. (You know I
don't like Apple. They hurt me, and I've never forgiven them). I really liked
how you made my live easier, and all my email contacts were automatically in
my phone. And, anything that I updated in my phone, showed up in my email
system.

You also really helped me out by by making it really easy to find things by
using my phone. Your navigation system is really, really nice.

But, you're starting to really creep me out, Google.

First, you automatically gave me a "Profile" page, and linked all my contacts
to it, without my permission.

And, now... You're changing my search results based on who I know and what
they've liked. I trusted you with who I know. Please, stop using that
information. If I want to know what links my friends have clicked on. I'll ask
them. If I want to look at their pictures on flikr... I'll follow their
photostream.

Please stop. You're really creeping me out. You know a lot about me, and I
don't think I trust you any more.

So, this is it. I'm breaking up with you.

You've been following me around with my phone, so you know where I am at any
given point in time. You know who I call and when I call them. You tried to
get a record of all my phone calls with Google Voice, but that was just a
little too creepy for me. You've had a record of every email that I've sent
for the last few years, and you know most of what I'm looking for on the
internet.

You're around me too much. You're following me. You want a record of my voice.
You are showing me results that my "friends" are looking at. It's just too
much. I'm leaving you.

As soon as my new phone comes in this week, I'm getting rid of your phone. I'm
changing my email system to an Exchange based system. And, I'm switching my
search engines to DuckDuckGo, Bing and Blekko.

I do appreciate your helpfulness in the past. But, you're getting way too
close for comfort. Did I mention you're creeping me out?

Goodbye.

------
elvirs
When it comes to innovations in social web, attempts made by google look
pathetic.

------
benatkin
Anyone remember when Google Code blocked +1 comments?

<http://code.google.com/p/support/issues/detail?id=677>

And now Google is adding +1 to their search results. Arrgh!

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measure2xcut1x
I don't see my wife creating a google account so she can click +1 on a web
page when there will be a facebook like button right next to the +1 button.
Why would she? Her friends are on facebook.

~~~
delineal
This is a key point. Also, it's easy to "like" something if there is only one
button. I feel I'm doing my friends a favor. When there are multiple buttons,
I feel like I'm doing work for the website operator. The only exception would
be the case where the content is really so awesome that I feel the whole world
needs to know about it. My first thought after reading about how it works was
"How can we consolidate all the vendors into a single 'like' button?"

~~~
rakkhi
Someone like add this may create one. There are already plenty of ways you can
turn a like into a share on facebook, twitter, Tumblr etc instapaper's new
social options is one

------
cpeterso
When Yahoo acquired Delicious, I assumed Yahoo would use Delicious users'
links, tags, and relationships to create "social-powered search" like Google's
+1.

But I guess I gave Yahoo too much credit.

------
fossuser
Seems like an interesting way to try and tie in a social aspect to their
search, but I think they're at a bit of a disadvantage when compared to
Facebook mostly because Google profiles are not ubiquitously used. If you
don't have anyone to share your +1s with then after some time I'd suspect
people won't bother. I think redesigning the profile page was a step in the
right direction and I think they have to come up with something to get people
to fill them out and use them.

~~~
dman
Might be a nice idea to buy communities like github, photo.net and import user
identities from there. Of course the privacy and the UX of such a move will
dictate whether users go "wow this is great" or "oh my god now the whole
internet knows about my tinfoil hat". In the meanwhile they could try to
integrate identities from services that google already owns - youtube, picasa,
google reader etc.

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mikelward
There should have been a +1 button on Google's blog post. :-)

------
xsive
I think Google went about this ass-backward.

I can seldom judge the usefulness of a site just based on a list of returned
results -- however -- I _can_ often filter out junk (anything from experts-
exchange for example). So it seems to me a -1 button would have been better.
Not to mention less creepy than tracking sites I like based on my interaction
with a search engine.

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alanh
I have to imagine “social media marketing” types are planning obvious ways to
exploit this as we speak.

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carnivore
Does Google think we all have superpowers? How do I know I want to +1 a link
before I see it?

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edambauskas
The first thing I did. I went and voted for my own projects :-)

------
bretthellman
I can see the value for shopping/purchase related searches.

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start123
Google has cluttered its search results page with Preview button, Social
search results and now the +1 button making it difficult to locate content.

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elvirs
Google is late to the party, I thought they understood it when nobody used the
'buzz' button.

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ozten
People are taking this seriously? Looks like an April fools joke.

Better implementation - An in chrome button you can hit that -1 the current
url. I'll never remember to +1 a site once I've clicked the link, but I do say
WTF!?! once I'm there and I do want to sink the bad links w/o going back.
Would be a cross-browser Addon.

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currywurst
Does anyone think "You +1'd this publicly" sounds quite ominous ?!

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beilabs
Does this feel like an April fools joke to anyone else?

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vnchr
+1 A Like button integrated with search.

Awesome.

