You may have noticed the new “+1” icon showing up next to both Google organic and paid searches. It is currently available only to signed-in users of Google.com using a modern browser . Signed-in users also see personalized annotations from people in their Gmail (or Google Talk) chat list., members in their My Contacts group in Google Contacts, people they’re following in Google Reader and Google Buzz, and people with that user in one of their circles in Google+.
According to Google “the +1 button is shorthand for “this is pretty cool” or “you should check this out.” Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1′s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.”
It may also be used for determining a page’s or site’s relevance and ranking, and this is what makes it so exciting.
The +1 button is currently being compared to the Facebook Like button, and Facebook stooges are calling it just another failed attempt by Google to crush Facebook.
Google is characterizing +1 as a different function to Facebook’s Like, saying that recommendations are only shared within the context of relevant searches, rather than spamming all contacts. Google has always been about relevance and what is more relevant than a personalized annotation next to your page from friends, family, college buddies, etc…
In order to make Google plus-one more relevant and to avoid spam, users of Google Plus, or G+, Google’s new social media platform can categorize their connections into “circles” — such as business contacts, friends and family — and share different information with each circle, as in real life. Facebook attempted to do this with lists, but the process there is time-consuming and burdensome. Google+ circles are easier to create and use. Unlike Facebook, you don’t have to accept all “friends” into one large network and share information that at times may be irrelevant to many of them
According to Matt Cutts – the head of the Web Spam division at Google “ It’s only a matter of time before this very social tool becomes an important part of their algorithm. After all, they track, monitor, and gather all the results from those clicks. You can bet they’ll use the data.”
While it is anyone’s guess what Google’s true intention is, there is an abundance of evidence pointing to the positive influence of Google +1 on search results. I would strongly advise that anyone with an interest in the ongoing success of their website to keep a close eye on this new tool.
About the author:
David Crockenberg is the owner of DEC Systems, a Rhode Island web design company specializing in search engine optimization and marketing. You can follow DEC Systems on Facebook and subscribe to David’s web design blog to get updates on what’s hot (and what’s not) in search engine optimization, and marketing.
