Well, Google is doing its best to help us realise the value of the +1 button but, whilst this might be a step in the right direction, it’s still not enough for me. I’ll probably eat my words one day but as I sit here now, I still can’t see the value in it. Reading Google’s official overview of Google + (https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/+/learnmore/) it all seems a bit ambiguous – it doesn’t actually guarantee who will or won’t see your +1’s. And vice versa. Casing point – my colleague Ben and I liked the same site, he could see my +1, but I could not see his – go figure!
I will change my tune very quickly if it does start affecting search engine rankings – as it promises, admittedly.
For now, I’ll bear with it and hope that more people get involved – I may like it more if I have more than a dozen people in my circles! If you do want to see what Google + is all about, get in touch – [email protected] – I’ll send you an invite and add you to one of my circles!
Google has announced changes to the +1 button that could mean huge things for sites and businesses in terms of driving traffic. Google has turned the +1 button into what it should have been when Google+ was launched: a means of sharing content to your Google+ Circles. Or in other words, Google’s version of the “like” button.
“When you share content from the +1 button, you’ll notice that we automatically include a link, an image and a description in the sharebox,” he adds. “We call these ‘+snippets,’ and they’re a great way to jumpstart conversations with the people you care about.”
Publishers can customize +snippets. You can alter the markup to fit the kind of content you provide. “You may already be using this markup to build rich annotations for your pages on Google Search,” says Group Product Manager Daniel Dulitz. “If not, marking up your pages is simple. Just add the correct schema.org attributes to the data already present on your pages. You’ll set a name, image, and description in your code.”
A New inline annotations feature may remind you a bit of some Facebook social plugins. “Now, when a person visits a page that someone they know has +1’d, they can see a name and face reminding them to pay special attention to your content,” says Duliz.
Before, the +1 button was basically just a way of telling Google that content was good enough to be considered a good search result. It presumably still serves this function as well. +1s simply showed up in the +1s tab on a user’s profile. You know, where none of your friends see them.
Now, you can share content with your circles more easily like you’re using a social network – which you now are.
For publishers, this should be tremendously helpful in boosting traffic from Google+. It means more visibility and more reason for people to share your content on Google+.
“Clicking the +1 button is a great way to highlight content for others when they search on Google.,” says Google’s Vic Gundotra. “But sometimes you want to start a conversation right away—at least with certain groups of friends. So beginning today, we’re making it easy for Google+ users to share webpages with their circles, directly from the +1 button. Just +1 a page as usual and look for the new ‘Share on Google+’ option. From there you can comment, choose a circle and share.”