14 DAY TRIAL // Google has always been experimenting with different layouts, new features and changes in the open, to get real feedback. It only uses a small portion of its user base in tests, so if people don't like it or something goes wrong, there won't be many casualties.
The premise has worked so far, but it seems to be backfiring since, even if you test with a few people if one of those is a famous guy with a large online following, any mishap is going to be amplified.
Wil Wheaton stumbled upon a YouTube experiment that replaces the regular thumb up/thumb down buttons with a +1/Google+ share/Like hybrid button.
We've seen the experiment before and it wasn't exactly a fan favorite, but Google wasn't going to stop just because a few people were criticizing the move on a couple of forums.
We'll see how it reacts now since Wheaton has no kind words for the button and the whole forced Google+ thing. He's actually a fan of Google+, he's the 52nd most followed person on the social network, he's got almost 1.4 million followers, so he has nothing against the platform, just the way Google seems to be shoving it down people's throats.
"I like Google Plus. Some of the smartest people I've ever read are on Google Plus, and the Hangout is amazing. But Google is doing everything it can to force Google Plus on everyone, and it's pissing me off," Wheaton said.
The last time we stumbled upon this experiment YouTube said it is not replacing the vote buttons with the +1 button. But as we said at the time, that's not to say it's not replacing the vote buttons with something. Indeed the tests have shown a G+ Like button, a G+ share button and a simple G+ button.