Gone are the days when you could freely search in private. In an attempt to make your search results more relevant to you, Google has unveiled its latest +1 button, a way for your Google contacts to infiltrate your searches by telling you what they think is cool. If you're logged into your Google account, your typical search result page will start now becoming populated with suggestions your contacts have made. Sounds good in theory, but I'm far from sold.
There are a lot of people on Gmail, sure, but there are even more people who aren't. In fact, it really only scratches the surface of e-mail client market share, according to these stats from
litmus. (Disclaimer: These numbers are from 2010, so they have likely changed some since, but in all my searching, this was the most recent I could find.)
That ushers in the next biggest question, the same one that's been plaguing Facebook: How many people in your Gmail contacts are you actually friends with? While we are predispositioned to like things if we know our friends do, that principle doesn't carry over to every person we've ever e-mailed. Consider those who use Gmail accounts specifically for work. Are you more inclined to favor a site just because one of your clients suggested it? Furthermore, do you even want to know what your clients may be doing socially, on their personal time? We don't mix business with pleasure, so why mix searching with social?
If I want recommendations from my friends, I go to Facebook. If I want recommendations from people within my industry, I go to Twitter. If I want to do my own research, I go to Google. Sometimes, these three things will overlap in my quest for the perfect source, but most of the time, they don't. Why? Because your friends don't always know what's best.
Google has long prided itself in having the best ranking algorithm, but any searcher knows that something just isn't working right. Since I've seen more of the social aspect creeping into Google's results, instead of cleaning up their often-spammed first page results page, it's just making it more cluttered. I've been an avid googler from day one, but Bing: You're looking better and better.
This isn't the first time Google has tried to enter the social sphere. I'm sure you remember Buzz. What about Wave? Flops. And from the looks of what the +1 button can actually do —
PC World has a good write-up for details — it's more like Google has yet again just rushed into something just to be considered "social" without any real thoughts into how they can improve your overall searching experience.