Facebook Launches the Send Button
The ever popular “like” button has just received a new sidekick: the “send” button. Launched today, the send button is very similar to the Like button.
Once you click on the Send button a popup will appear allowing you to send that article or page to friends, groups or any email address. What makes it different from the like button is that you can quickly share the content with certain people instead of all your friends, how the like button does.
Another interesting fact: Shares count toward the total number of Likes a page has. The Like total is now calculated by adding the number of Likes, shares, comments and inbox messages containing a URL.
The Send button’s code is already available on Facebook’s Developer Website. And as with the Like button, it only takes a few lines of code to get the Send button running on a website.
So why don’t you test out the new feature by sending this!!!!
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HigherVisibility
The Google +1 Button – long overdue
Google announced the Google + 1 Button on their blog, today, which I think will likely have a positive impact on SEO.
Users of the first Google Toolbar will possibly remember the like and dislike voting buttons on it. They were available beside the PageRank Meter but you had to enable them manually. (I don’t have a screenshot). I used to like them but they were quickly disabled as they were too open to abuse. But Google has returned, Facebook-esque, with the Google +1 Button. I think this is brilliant and much overdue.
A lot will be made of it being a Facebook copy-cat but that’s overrated. Much of Facebook isn’t original and Google has tried this in the past. It’s also not social networking – Google is an aggregator of data and their star rating system, like/dislike voting buttons and PageRank systems are relative dinosaurs compared to Facebook and the like button.
Here’s why I think its so important and where it will have some positive effects for SEO.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Users liking sites brings back appreciation for design, UI and UX. If design is really bad and the User Experience is awful, this will could have a negative effect on a website. Of course, design is impossible for search engines to take into account and its pretty hard for humans given its subjective nature.
This to me is great news for people who value strong design and user experiences and is a big shot in the arm for web design (diseño web)ers. But it’s how the design affects you, not how you feel about the design (note for site owners) – and so “graphics-free” sites like Craigslist will probably garner many likes.
Up until now, design and UIX was taken into account by indirectly valuing the CTR and link back stats that Google collects.
Can the spam
A massive benefit could be reduced spam counts. Rubbish and empty blogs, posts, press releases, content farms and other spam mass generated by ruthless and shameful blackhat-SEO companies and their careless clients should be hit again by giving a direct vote to users
Bringing Balance to the Force
By giving users a vote on pages – it essentially starts to move to balance out the guesswork by the algorithm. For example, if users keep picking the first few sites that rank but they get less likes than other sites – it makes sense for Google to shake up the mix a bit.
Execution
Its unlikely that this will be a heavy weight factor at the start. Because internet representation is still anonymous (and Privacy Campaigners keen to see it that way), the system is open to some abuse, so some form of balance of power to limit it.
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SEO Blog
Facebook’s Like Button Turns One [Usage Data]
Yesterday Facebook celebrated the one year anniversary of one of its most important product launches, the Like Button. A year ago, Facebook unvieled the Like Button at their f8 conference, marking the true extention of the Facebook platform to third-party websites.
To commemorate the one year anniversary of the Like Button Facebook released some interesting data about the button’s usage in its first year.
5 Facebook Like Button Usage Statistics
1. 10,000 websites integrate with Facebook each day
2. More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook (including more than 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites)
3. Over half of the 25 fastest growing comScore U.S. retail sites use Facebook
4. Media sites that adopt the Like button average a greater than 300% increase in referral traffic from Facebook
5. Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
Did You Catch That Last Stat?
While all of the above statistics are impressive, the last one should send a clear signal to marketers. With more than 250 million people enaging with Facebook from other websites, it is clear that Facebook has quickly colonized information sharing and social interaction on the Web. This also illustrates the importance for business to add social plugins such as the Like Button to make their website and blog more social.
Marketing Takeaway
Whether you are a B2C or B2B marketer, you need to understand the evolving social Web. Today, people want to be able to easily share information with one another. Tools such as the Like Button act as friction reducers to enable content from a business blog or website to be more social. Yes, Facebook matters but it matters far beyond Facebook.com. When looking at your social media strategy, be sure to make your Web properties more social.
Which of these Like Button stats suprises you the most?
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HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
Thoughts on what the Google +1 button means for SEO
Google has announced the +1 button which allows users to vote for specific search results, AdWords ads and (in a few months) pages on your website. The button is a vote to say you like the page, think it’s cool and would want to recommend it to your friends.
The key about this button is that your friends only see the recommendations when they are searching for the same thing you were searching for. This is in sharp contrast to Twitter and Facebook where you have to send the link when you are interested in it rather than when your friend is looking for the same thing. For news and current topical results Twitter & Facebook sharing is great, for ecommerce sites and non-topical content it doesn’t really work as well.
Google has built a business around showing users adverts and search results relevant to what they are searching for right now and this is why they have been able to monetise so much better than social networks.
There is a long standing argument that user data is easy to fake. It isn’t. Google has over 200 million Gmail users around the world and 133,000 people are using the Chrome extension to block sites from search results just 6 weeks after it launched.
In the tech community a lot of people have complained about the poor quality of Googles results but the vast majority of the complaints were constructive criticism – people want Google to get this right. If these people are willing to complain about things & download Chrome extensions then they will also be willing to give a quick +1 for pages and search results they find useful.
Our recommendation is for all sites to add the +1 button when it’s available in just the same way they would add Facebook and Twitter buttons.
Google has failed at adding social layers before with Bookmarks, Searchwiki and Buzz but something tells me this time they might just have got it right. Even if the results are only used for testing algorithms (like the Chrome extension was) rather than actually influencing results this is clearly an important step forwards.
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Thoughts on what the Google +1 button means for SEO
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Blogstorm