by David
20. August 2011 14:04
All of a sudden, Google search results and many websites have a new “+1” icon. Well if you haven’t already hard about, +1 is one of Google’s newest initiatives to help provide better, more relevant search results. In a nut shell, +1 is Google’s version of the well know Facebook “Like” feature.
If you look to the right of this column, you will see the +1 button we are talking about. When you visit this page, or any other page that you like you can click on the +1. I'd like to assume you like my site so please, go ahead and click the icon to try it out. (You may see a window popup asking you to confirm it). Now when someone in you Google contact list searches for something similar, in the search result for this page it will have at the bottom “your name +1’d this”. This is to let your contacts know that you liked it, so they may like it too.
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.”
Although Google +1 is still relatively new, and still gaining popularity, it can be a valuable resource used to drive traffic to your website. These days it is very common for a search to provide hundreds of thousands of results and you want your website to be at the top of the list. Although that takes a lot of time, work, and effort to reach the top, Google +1 is one more tool that can help you achieve that goal.
For more information, visit:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/+1/button/index.html