Mountain View, California — Last month, Google expanded the +1 button features similar to the social media networking Facebook’s “like” button for Google+ in the sense that when you click the button, you can now share content to your Google+ Circles, which will help users share information from their travels worldwide. Today, the search giant has brought the feature to its another popular service Google Maps, making it easy to share directions as well.
Google first unleashed this feature for Google+ a few weeks ago as another way to begin conversations, but it is basically another form of the +1 sharing button, and now it is being added to Maps. Now, when you share content from the button, it automatically includes a link, an image and a description in the share-box. Google calls these “+snippets”.
“Suppose you are planning a weekend trip to Napa,” says Google VP of Product Management Bradley Horowitz. “Your packing list probably includes driving directions, hotel information and a list of nearby wineries. Many of you visit Google Maps for this kind of information already. But with +snippets, Google+ users can easily share directions or places (for example) with fellow travelers. Just click “Share…” in the Google+ bar at the top of the screen, and whatever you see on Maps is what you will see in the share-box– ready to share with your circles.”
See the examples below.
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The +snippets attribute functions almost like a screenshot of what you see in your current window. So, when you are reviewing a page that you want to share, simply click on the “Share” button on the Google+ bar at the top of page. Whatever you see in the Maps area will appear in the sharebox for you to type a message and choose which friends or circles to share with.
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“With today’s launch, Google Maps joins other Google products like Books, Offers and Product Search in having +snippets,” he adds.
Interestingly, this innovative feature is already available to Google Books, Offers, and Product Search, and the company says it will roll out +snippets to more Google products in the future as part of its quest to “make sharing across Google just as easy” as sharing other content with the +1 button. Publishers can also customize the +snippet feature for their websites.