Posted on June 24, 2011 by admin
Recently you may have noticed yet another social media button popping up on websites – The Google + 1 button. So what is Google plus one and how does it work?
In Google’s own words it is a way of saying that “this is pretty cool”. its pretty much the same concept as ‘Digging’ something on http://digg.com or liking something on http://www.facebook.com. The difference is that Google are incorporating the ‘+ 1′s’ into their search results. For example if you do a search for ‘Fish & Chips in Melbourne’ and one of your friends has clicked ‘plus one’ on their favorite Melbourne Fish & Chip shop then Google might include their website in your results. Assuming this website doesn’t normally appear in the natural listings then you can see it can be quite powerful.
Google are forever trying to increase the quality of their search results and they see this as a way to get direct feedback from their customers. Depending on the success of ‘+ 1′ they may even include some of the data into their algorithm.
Will it work?
For ‘plus one’ to really succeed they will need their users to want to press the button. Facebook users love pressing the ‘like’ button but I’m not sure if Google users will have the same incentive to ‘plus one’. The Facebook community is all about sharing and swapping info with your friends, time will tell if Google can entice their users to use the like button. Whilst I’m not sure that it will truly ‘take off’ I’m sure that if it does it can only be a good thing for search results.
How to get the Button?
Head over to http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html or ask your webmaster. If you haven’t seen the button before have a look below!