A “Stand-Out” Google Feature and Why F8 Was a Mistake

Google released the +1 in response to Facebook’s Like button, then Google+ in an overall response to Facebook and all other social media platforms. Huge numbers of people were fed up with Facebook anyway so they all migrated, found it unfamiliar and went straight back to Facebook’s comfortable, cozy familiarity.

However, in a decision which was in no way influenced by the millions of people registering with Google+ in the first days of its going on a public beta Zuckerberg changed the security settings on Facebook to more accurately reflect the ways humans interact with one another. It’s something of a truism to say that you should never let your different social circles meet and Google+ respects this. Zuckerberg’s opinion was that no-one needed to have more than one profile and your news should be shared with every-one. Because a nineteen year old college student really wants their mom and kid sister to see how they’re spending their Friday nights, right?

Could F8 Have Been A F8l Mistake?

While Facebook were holding the F8 conference changes were going live throughout the platform itself. Unwelcome changes that no one anticipated, liked, or wanted. In an effort to keep up with the competition, rather than remaining unique, Facebook effectively shot itself in the foot while digging its own grave, over Thursday and Friday, as these changes were happening I had more circle requests and acceptances of invites that I had sent ages ago than in the previous three months since Google+’ inception.  The platforms are different and people will use them for different purposes. In the same way that LinkedIn was like Facebook for business people, Google+ was like Facebook for grown-ups. People don’t like change, particularly when it’s unnecessary and so, as soon as all the changes trickled down, people were developing means to keep them off of their pages. Now, people cry out whenever Facebook makes changes but they never had a reasonable option before. F8 threw all but their most loyal users right into the eagerly awaiting arms of Google+

But what has this to do with the tit-for-tat spat that’s ongoing between Facebook and Google? Well, Facebook had Likes, Google introduced +1s, Facebook changes its whole user experience and Google’s response? The Stand-Out, the super+1 if you will.

If you publish content of any kind, put out blogs as part of your SEO activity or just want to ensure that your news gets in front of as many eyes as you can add a tag, the Standout which will show that you’ve really worked on the piece, the article will show up better in Google news and may (according to the Google news blog) appear with a featured label alongside it.

But Hang On, Don’t Go Crazy!

Using more than seven in any week will result in your Standouts becoming devalued as they’re not there for constant self promotion, they’re there to indicate that the piece really is something that people are going to be especially interested in. You only get one a day for your work; but you can use as many as you like showing your appreciation for other peoples’ writing.

This fits in perfectly with the ethos behind the Panda update which caused so much fuss earlier this year. It takes the onus off of the algorithms Google uses to identify quality content and helps them by taking the recommendations of real human readers instead of spiders and robots.

I find it hard to believe that anyone has ever Liked or +1d a spun or farmed article so using these signals alongside a Standout will certainly be a great way to observe genuine quality. And today, more than ever, quality is king.

About the Author: @DanCash is a SEO features writer living on the south coast of England. Using social media for cross cultural training and development is rapidly becoming a viable reality, what with communication with remote virtual teams and platforms that synch perfectly with Docs and Calendars social could easily see IaaS available to everyone free of charge.

Photo Credit: Robert Scoble

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