Tag Archives: friends

In March 2011 Google introduced the +1-Button to Google Search.

Now in June 2011 Google gives Webmasters the ability to add the +1-Button to their websites too. You can find it above this text on the left by the way 😉

Google says:

The +1 button can help publishers, too. As potential visitors see recommendations from their friends and contacts beneath your Google search results, you could see more, and better qualified, traffic coming from Google.

If you want the +1 Button for your website, you can get it here: Google

However one interesting question comes to mind: if you don’t use GMail (Contacts could be seen as friends and family by Google), to which “friends” are you recommending sites when clicking +1?

This is the official main purpose of this button after all… (or isn’t it? “Don’t be evil”)

But Google says it will be one of many ranking signals, so if you are depending on Google traffic, do you think you can “risk” not using it in the long run?

Google says:

Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better.

Because of this, +1’s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query.

This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, and we’re constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality.

For +1’s, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality.

What are your thoughts about +1?

Are you using it already, plan to use it or don’t care at all?