Why Google’s “+1” blows Facebook’s “Like” button out of the water

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Yesterday Google finally launched its “+1” button for websites. It functions the same as Facebook’s Like button. While some people might think that this is just another copycat move by Google (and it probably is,) there’s one major difference. Google +1 is way better than Facebook’s Like button.

Around a year ago, I had written about my dislike for the Like button and why I wasn’t using it on my site. The end result might be just a small button, but the amount of resources it used was entirely disproportional to what was needed. Around 30 HTTP requests from various sources. Now my hosting plan isn’t fast – which shared hosting is? And I like to keep the number of resources used down to a minimum. For a long time I hoped and prayed that Google would implement an alternative, and my prayers were finally answered.

You should see the implementation on my site right now. Any webmaster can check that the resource usage is minimal. No slow loading times and no no obscene HTTP requests. Just an elegant solution which quietly updates without flashy effects. Just what my site needed.

Thanks Google. I hope more people start using this. And from what I’ve heard, you’re also implementing web analytics around it so I will be able to see which pages are +1’d and when. All good news for me!

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3 thoughts on “Why Google’s “+1” blows Facebook’s “Like” button out of the water”

    • In reply to Reema

      I don’t think so. WordPress.com doesn’t allow external javascript (for good reasons) and this requires one line of Javascript to make the magic happen…

      Reply

  2. Facebook seems to have improved their Like button in the past year as it no longer makes so many requests. Images are finally merged into one sprite. The button is still a bit slow, depending on which method used to add the code (for a small button, the recommended full script is a bit much), but it’s a huge improvement over how it used to be.

    The Google +1 button is great, but the problem I have with it is that Google insists on the button using HTTPS connections. Even if you change the original script URL to HTTP, subsequent requests (Image sprite, CSS, 1 more JS) will still make an HTTPS request.

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