Google +1

Google has announced the +1 button yesterday, similar to Facebook Like button.

A small percentage of Google search users on Google.com in the United States searching in English will now see a +1 button next to search listings, when they are logged in. They can use the +1 button to publicly show what you like, agree with, or recommend on the web.

When a person clicks the button, he/she’s “+1′d” it. When they do a search when logged into Google, any results that they’ve +1′d — or which have been +1′d by those in their network — will be enhanced.


- Those with Google Profiles can “plus” things; everyone else cannot.
- Google account holders who are signed in will see all the +1′s and personalized “recommendations” even though they cannot add their own pluses without a Google Profile.
- Also, +1 buttons are not available on Internet Explorer 7.

More information on participating in +1 is here.

Effect of +1 for Paid Ads

According to Christian Oestlien, Google’s Group Product Manager for Ads, +1 will appear on all Google search ads by default. However advertisers will be able to opt out by submitting this form.

Advertisers will be able to see stats about which ads are getting the most +1s.

it will not impact ads quality and paid rankings.

Google's early tests showed there was a lift for ads that featured +1 annotation.

A user “plus-ing” (endorsing) an ad will not count as a click to the advertiser.

Users don’t need to specifically endorse ads for their pluses appear on ads. There’s a common infrastructure for social +1 on both the organic and paid side. So, if you +1 a particular page in organic results, then for the paid ad that uses the same URL, +1 appears.

In the future Google intends to cluster URLs so that the +1′d URL and the AdWords URL don’t have to be identical for +1′s to appear in the ad.


+1 and Organic Search

Google is working on a +1 button that you can put on your pages, making it easy for people to recommend your content on Google search. If you want to be notified when the +1 button is available for your website, you can sign up for email updates.

Google notes that they will “start to look at +1’s as one of the many signals [that they] use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking”.

At this point, we don’t know how much traction it can get from the consumer side. And, it is very likely that the feature will get abused quickly by spammers.