Google's "Like" Button

Last month, Google announced it will be incorporating its own version of the Facebook "like" button- called the "plus one" button. After they failed miserably trying to beat out Facebook and Twitter with their Google Buzz platform, Google will be using the plus-one button to yet again take on these social media empires.

I think the plus-one button will be more successful than Google Buzz, however, because Google is utilizing it for general search engine purposes. Users can use the plus-one button to vote on search results they find useful and then have the opportunity to share this on Google platforms such as Gchat, Gmail, Google Reader, Google Buzz and Twitter.

I was unaware of this last platform being included in the new plus-one voting system and was semi-creeped out when I noticed that one of my Twitter followers had shared the link on her Twitter.

I was Googling the PRSSA National Conference and underneath the link, I noticed my friend (and trustee PRSSA VP for next year) had liked the link as well. Then Google asked me if I was "sarahkilbourne." This really got me considering I wasn't even logged into Twitter at the time!

Sorry the image is a bit pixelated.

In my opinion, this move should work well for Google, not to mention the organizations or businesses who's links are being voted on because consumers always trust word of mouth over any advertising that a company can produce.

Google said they will eventually integrate the plus-one system into their search algorithm so that human votes will have an impact on search ranking. I've heard that companies can pay to have their links show up higher in the results; I'm not sure how true this is, but this new system would overrule that, replacing it with a heavier impact coming from human votes.

In an article appearing on the Ad Age Digital website, Google's Principle Engineer for Search Matt Cutts said, "When someone recommends something, that's a pretty good indicator of quality...We are strongly looking at using this in our rankings."

So far, that's the only plus-one vote I've seen so far, but I'm excited to see it show up more often in search rankings.