Google Adds The Ability To Post Polls On Google+

What does Google+ have that Facebook doesn’t? Starting today, Google’s social network is giving pages and profiles the ability to create and post polls.

That’s a feature that Facebook took away from users in 2012 and Pages last year. The Facebook “Ask Question” polling feature is still available on Facebook Groups and some major media partners have access as well, but it’s not generally available to Pages to the dismay of many small business owners.

There’s a long tail of complaints about it on this post in the Facebook help community. When it eliminated polling for Pages, Facebook said the feature was redundant and that Pages could create the same experience by merely asking questions and getting answers in comments.

Google+ apparently disagrees, moving to add an extra interactive feature that there’s clearly a demand for. It a nice differentiator for the social network, which is playing catch-up to Facebook and fighting the perception that it’s not one of Google’s priorities.

The feature will be rolled out on the web and Android versions of Google+ over the next few days, followed soon after by iOS. When the feature is available, users will have the option to create polls in the post composition window.

I have it already on the desktop (see screen grab above). The polls are easy to create, allowing up to five answers. You can also add two photos if you want to create a visual comparison, like this:

The Next Web has already scored a winner, taking dual advantage of the new polling feature and Google+’s support for animated GIFs. Click image below for the full experience:

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About The Author

Martin Beck

Martin Beck was Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter from March 2014 through December 2015.