Mountain View, California — After weeks of social search speculation, just as Twitter unfurled its “follow” button, so do global search engine behemoth Google has dialed up the love you can show Web sites, reportedly adding its budding social link sharing service +1, about to go live for websites starting today, TechCrunch reports.
According to TechCrunch, a Google associate company Clearspring, pulls the rug out from under the search giant and confirmed that the site’s +1 feature will begin its official launch tomorrow, saying, “I understand that Google planned to reach out to you about the new Google +1 button for websites that they will be unveiling shortly. I thought you might be interested in speaking with Hooman Radfar, CEO of Clearspring, about the company’s role as a launch partner for Google +1.”
The Google +1 button has been on marketers’ minds since the company unveiled +1 icon first appeared alongside search engine results in March as a way to let Web surfers like search results. That feature enabled users who are logged in to their Google accounts keep tabs on their favorite search discoveries on Google, it served as a social recommendation for individual results, encouraging clicks as well as giving the company tools to customize what sorts of ads it delivers.
Google’s +1 feature for Web searches (Credit: Google)
And the company applied that data from +1 to gauge the quality of its search results. Right now, the button is only available in Google search results if you opt in. By adding the button to your website, visitors have the option to share it with their Google contacts.
The progress is not only significant to accumulating social advocacy for content pages, but perhaps also for improving search rankings. During a recent live question and answer session, Google’s Matt Cutts described that using Google +1 data as a ranking signal is a strong possibility. “It is definitely a signal we are paying a lot of attention to,” Search Engine Land quotes Cutts as saying. “It has tons of potential. It looks very promising.”
According to Cnet website, “Tomorrow we will be talking about how the +1 button will further help people discover and recommend great content across the Web,” Google spokesman Jim Prosser wrote in an e-mail. “We will have more details with our announcement.”
If you are not familiar with the (plus one) button, this video will basically get you up to speed:
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