I agree that tying these bonuses for everyone's participation is Larry Page's first big blunder.

I think there's two things that google can do to be a leader in the social space. Maybe you won't agree.

First. Buy Reddit. Buy all of Conde Nast if you have to, Larry.

Second. Given that search is an instant gratification thing (which google does so well) what would happen if, like in a subreddit, I wanted to be aware of goings on in a certain subject? Facebook is great for checking up on what a bunch of my friends are doing all over the world. But if I want a good daily overview of what's going on in a subject I'm interested in, with generally good coments, I go over to Reddit. Google could rule in this "automated newsgroup" space quite well. You would turn to this space to get commentary on articles all over the web. Google could keep it free from bots and not easily gamed. But Reddit's doing it right, and has the biggest userbase. (And yes, I find it pretty annoying most days, but now I filter out a lot of the subreddits I don't like.)

My point here is that Google should look at and learn from Reddit's model so much that it'd be better if they just bought it outright.