We’ve all seen Google’s +1 button floating around the web allowing signed-in Google users to recommend content that they deem useful and share it with their friends and contacts. And up until yesterday the +1 button was only offered on search results pages, but now Google has taken the social plunge even further and offers the +1 button to web pages.

With the +1 button’s new accessibility, users can suggest a page while they are still on it. It definitely makes sense — how do you know you want to promote a page if you have not seen it yet?

For example, when I heard that Shaquille O’Neal announced his retirement from the NBA via Twitter yesterday, I needed to learn more.

After performing the search query “shaq announces retirement via twitter,” I was brought up with a list of stories covering the event:

shaq2 Goodbye Shaq, Hello Googles New +1 Button Feature

Instead of just suggesting the story on the search results page, I thought I might take a gander first.

shaqs story3 Goodbye Shaq, Hello Googles New +1 Button Feature

After reading how “Shaqosaurus” (adding to his endless list of nicknames) notified his followers on Twitter with an insider video blurb from TOUT, a real-time social video update service, I checked the Google +1 button and gave it my blue badge of approval.

So just as before, when someone whom I am contact with on Google searches for this news, they will see how I recommended this article from Mashable and may give it a view themselves. Ah, the power of social search!

+11 Goodbye Shaq, Hello Googles New +1 Button Feature

Because this new +1 option applies to the URL of the page the user is on, you will need to compose small snippets of JavaScript to place on the pages where you want your +1 button to appear. Also, there are different styles to choose from so you are not stuck with just one option. This way you can customize it to your site.

If you want to be strategic and ensure that your pages with the +1 feature reaches SERPs as much as possible, Google has some recommendations on how to make this happen.

I’m curious to see how this new rating system pans out for Google.

While I understand Google’s need to enter social search, where do they fit in? Will users embrace it? What are your thoughts?

 

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