According to the posting at the independent technology blog, VentureBeat, by Peter Yared, that appeared on March 30th at nytimes.com, “Google: +1 on Search Links, – 1 on Ad Clicks”, Google has launched its ‘+1 social initiative’.
Yared comments that the Google +1 implementation, which allows people to recommend individual items within search results, could be both positive and negative. Positive ? it improves the quality of search results. Negative ? it could decrease Google’s revenue. Yared predicts that “adding a +1 option to keyword ads will have a negative effect on clickthrough rates.”
Yared remarks the Google +1 is reminiscent of Digg. Essentially, Google +1 centers on the concept of crowdsourcing, as opposed to algorithmic computing, to rank search results.
Yared also voiced his concerns over AdWords. “What Google doesn’t appear to have thought through seriously is the +1 integration with Google AdWords. It is a cardinal rule of advertising that you present the user with one call to action. Clicking on a +1 next to an AdWords ad makes no sense at all ? it is already hard enough to get people to click on an ad without adding confusing paraphernalia around the unit.”
