This article was originally a comment on a forum post that got kind of intense. We were just talking about how the Google “+1″ button might overtake the Facebook “like” button as the standard social media button on the internet. Then it got hairy.
At first glance, “Who really cares?” Nobody.
It’s a silly little “button battle” between Facebook and Google…
At second glance, It’s a clear indication that the future of the Internet is going to be quite literally in your hands — your mobile phone!
Google has admitted that the mobile market is their number one priority these days.
That’s the whole point of the “+1″ button. You don’t need a keyboard to use it. It’s insanely mobile.
It will be the future of the “Internetz”
Here’s what I mean:
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Forum Post Begins Here
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Re: Will Google “+1″ Be Able To Catch Up With Facebook “Like”?
Wow, I thought I already commented on this post.
But it disappeared? Hmmm…
I’m definitely keeping an eye on this and I’m starting to see the Google “+1″ button on many of my favorite websites.
My two cents:
The way I see it is that it’s a sign that the web and the offline world are growing closer together. The Facebook “like” button was an early sign of that, as was the Twitter “retweet” button, and so on…
But with the power of Google behind the new +1 button I wouldn’t count it out from the get go, while it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that Google introduced a feature that failed to “catch on”, in my opinion it’s the next logical step in social search…
Maybe I think a little too far ahead for most people.
But I can see the day when everybody leaves comments on everything they see in the real world… every person they meet… every restaurant they go to… every store… every sale… every ad… in the real world through their cell phones with augmented reality technology…
You already see this with services like “FourSquare”. The “like” and “+1″ buttons make something like this instantaneous. If you don’t have “time” to comment…
You simply click “like” or “+1″. What’s easier?
If it isn’t already happening right now today then it will happen in the next few years.
There will be no difference between the offline world and the online one.
It will all be connected through mobile.
Not speaking “sci-fi” here. We have this technology in our pockets right now.
Maybe that’s the long way of saying “hell yeah! Google +1 will catch on”
But whether it does or doesn’t…
I promise you something similar will eventually catch on…
It’s only a matter of time.
When you’re sitting at Starbucks you’ll be “liking” or “plus oneing” that new triple chocolate mojo coffee you tried. When you buy a pair of shoes you will instantaneously tell your friends…
When you love, hate, or get ripped-off by a new product everybody in your social network will hear about it instantly through mobile. We already do it…
Just not quite as often or as fast as the “kids” will be doing it soon.
Simple new technology like the “like” or “+1″ are making it even easier to do…
No matter what happens or who wins the “Button Battle”…
You could quite literally say that the future of the Internet is going to be in your hands.
Web 4.0 is going to be mobile — mark my words.
My predictions may be dead on or I might be a false prophet…
In the end, it won’t matter if you master the fundamentals.
You see, human nature is the one thing that isn’t going to change with technology. If it ever changes at all it will only do so slowly. Over the course of centuries not months…
Your marketing and recruiting skills will always be there for you.
The principles of attraction marketing espoused in Magnetic Sponsoring will still be the guiding philosophy behind all effective marketing in 2013, 2021, and 2049.
You will either have applied what you’ve learned in it…
Or traded it for a handful of pulse grenades to fight our new robot overlords…
I for one welcome our new robot overlords…
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Forum Post Ends Here
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–This post has been edited for clarity and dramatic impact –
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I agree 100% that web 4.0 will be entirely mobile.
It’s crazy hearing older generations start talking more openly about Facebook in the offline “real world”. I just came home to NY to visit my family for a week and my aunt and uncle were telling me how cool it is that they can keep track of what I’m doing and where I’m going because of different Facebook posts I share.
I am definitely with you on the simplicity of the “+1″ and the “Like” that it has become something that even offline businesses are starting to adapt to fairly quickly. My clients are posting up “Like us on Facebook” signs on their brick-n-mortar businesses and starting to use the social web the way it’s supposed to be used.
My question is will Facebook be able to keep the “Like” ahead of the “+1″? Having too many choices often causes confusion and people may not want to click both the “Like” and “+1″ so might just go with what they’re comfortable with > The “Like”.
How will Google adapt to this and how will it affect our websites rankings over the coming years?
@Chris
Tell me about it. My grandma uses Facebook more than I do to see what everybody is up to. But the thing is, she’s moved from using her desktop for Facebook, email, and other things to portable devices. Now, I have to ask myself… if I am behind the times with a desktop…
My girlfriend stopped using her desktop pc about a week after I purchased an ipad. She simply doesn’t need it anymore. Now she’s mobile too.
Kids take to mobile even faster. I have seen kids pick-up phones and use them like they were born with one in their hands. They can do things on there that we can barely guess at…
It seems the teens and younger adults are picking up on this too. They use mobile more often than they will bother with a PC. I was wondering where everybody got their money for iPhones and cell plans these days seeing as min wage isn’t even enough for the average person to pay bills. It turns out that they buy iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices in place of having a desktop. That’s just plain nuts to me.
I do think the “like” button will be the steepest competition “+1″ will face. Only the future will know for sure. But I think people underestimate how much the average person uses Google for everything… particularly email and search.
I’m definitely interested to see how this affects websites over time. If I had to guess, I would say “go mobile” or die a painfully slow death by mobile in 2014. The complexity of our mobile devices is only going to continue to grow. In a few years, it wouldn’t surprise me if everybody with a job on earth is able to afford mobile devices with capabilities that we now pay 500-1000 dollars for in an iPad.
The future is a crazy thing and I love to speculate about what will happen to our industry.
The bottom-line as I see it is that the offline and online world will seamlessly merge at some point in time due to mobile tech and augmented reality apps.
I could talk about this for days but I have a feeling that the mobile age is already here.
It isn’t coming, it’s here in our hands today.
Mike i agree with one thing. In te future everybody is going to be able to SHARE the information. Afeter all that is what web 3.0 means, the ability to share content and recreate it through the web, but at the same time i have a question “Does the new +1 botton is actually a way to share content, or just a little gadget from google to try to identify “juicy content”?
Mike i believe that is the question
Mike i believe you didnt got the message:
I believe you are right, the future is in sharing content. One day you will receive every info you need from someone else sharing the content, but that is not the question, the question is “Is the new google+1 botton, a new way of sahring content, or is it just one simple “gadget” for google to identify “juicy content”?
It simply identifies the “juicy content” so that you’re more likely to share it with friends or click on it when you search. It’s pretty much exactly like the Facebook “like” button. But not like the “retweet” or “share” button. They serve a similar purpose but not in the same way.
Hi Courtney,
Love how you build on this and made it into a blog post. (Now why didn’t I think of that, haha.)
It will be very interesting to follow this and see what happens to your predictions. Wish I had a crystal ball
Cheers,
Ilka
Your right. Technology changes at the speed of light. Human nature, changes and a snails pace, if at all.
The computers and mobile devices of today are worlds ahead of the computers I first used in the Stone Ages of the Early Eighties. Main Frames, Card Readers and Pascal, Oh My! We’re not in Kansas anymore…
My PC in the late 80′s had 2, count em, 2 Megs of RAM and cost over $3000.
I’m no Nostradamus, and I don’t have a crystal ball, so I’m not sure who will win the battle of the buttons. If I had to guess, I’d say Facebook, because: 1. people are used to it now (human nature?) & 2. Because it’s tied to a social network where people love interacting. Google just has a button….
The ? I have is, will Google change it’s algorithms and give more Page Rank or love to sites that have lots of +1 votes? If so, then we’ll all be asking people to + 1 us instead of Like us. Maybe kids in school will write notes to each other, asking people to Check This Box, if you +1 me……
Time will tell.
It was a wonderful post Ilka.
Quite enjoyed thinking about it.
Thank you for starting the thread on BetterNetworker.
I hope it makes other people think too.
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