At the end of last month Google launched their newest attempt to break into the social media game with the “+1” button.

Google’s new social icon is comparable to Facebook’s “Like” button and it will begin appearing next month in search results and ads that when clicked will notify your connections that you think that link, or ad, is “pretty cool.”

Soon the +1 button will be extended to websites, with the incentive that the adoption of the button will improve a site’s search ranking when clicked.

How Google +1 will look

This valuable incentive isn’t the only hint that Google is desperate to make social work for them.

Recently new Google CEO Larry Page sent a memo to Google employees that 25% of their annual bonus will be tied to the success or failure of Google’s social strategy in 2011.

Google ardently believes that they need to be social to compete. After researching the +1 button myself and considering this desperation, I have to question how thought-out Google’s social strategy is. There must be more in the works because to me what they have presented is a “Like” button without the social media platform to back it up.

I mean, didn’t they learn anything from the dismal launch of Google Buzz? If I want to +1 a site to tell people it’s “pretty cool” who am I sending that message out to?

Another Example Google +1

According to Google, I will be notifying my contacts on Google, Gmail, Gtalk, Buzz and Reader. Essentially, these are the same people that didn’t care about my Buzz alerts along with my 550 other Gmail contacts, vastly made up of Craigslist inquirists, ex-landlords, and the 200+ companies and people I emailed my resume to during my post-graduation job search during the height of the recession.

And what about those people who can’t +1 because they don’t have a Google account? Well, they are directed to create a Google Profile. Google created Google Profiles two years ago to “help you manage your online identity,” and the template basically looks like an early Facebook page circa 2005.

Google Profile Example

Personally, I deeply care about my online identity, which I have been cultivating for the past six years on Facebook. With a rich six-year history and all my friends and family in one place, whether they’re Googlers or not, what is my incentive to extend my online identity with a Google Profile? The answer is none.

As an example, here is my sad Google Profile that after 2 years of neglect I have just visited today for reference for this post. There is no information in the “About” tab and no photos in the “PicasaWeb” tab because this stuff is all already housed in Facebook. The only information on here besides my menacing Gchat photo is documentation of my brief interaction with Google Buzz. Evidenced here is some of the confusion felt when Google tried to go social with this platform.

So, what is to come of +1 and Google as a big social player? Well, I hope there is going to be more behind the +1 strategy. Having it improve a site’s search ranking is a huge incentive as far as web prevalence goes on the publisher’s side, but with the initial shaky outlook on user adoption it is not enough.

And Google as a social player? Well, Google already is a huge social player! YouTube is the 6^th most visited site on the web (Comscore Media Metrix March 2011), and the PicasaWeb photo-sharing and Gmail/GTalk platforms are constantly being innovated and improved. This is not to mention the huge, “non-traditional” social opportunities presented by Android and Google TV (e.g. “See what your friends are watching right now…”). Mobile and TV are inherently social.

Lauren Abercrombie's Google Profile

Google is one of the most amazing companies of our time and I am constantly blown away by what they have done and can do day after day. And despite my condescension of Buzz and current lack of confidence in +1, I think that Google is in a strong position to exploit social networking. They just need to stop thinking of it within the framework laid out by Facebook and Twitter, a framework that is already heavily adopted with strong growth rates. If Google wants to successfully go social at scale I think they need to work off of and innovate what’s already working in their back pocket rather than coming out with another iteration of the wheel.

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