Google Webmaster Central Blog - Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index

Introducing the +1 button

Monday, March 28, 2011 at 12:36 AM

Webmaster level: All

We all know what it’s like to get a bit of help when you’re looking for it. Online, that advice can come from a number of places: a tweet, a shared video, or a blog post, to name a few. With Google Social Search we’ve been working to show that content when it’s useful, making search more personally relevant.

We think sharing on the web can be even better--that people might share more recommendations, more often, if they knew their advice would be used to help their friends and contacts right when they’re searching for relevant topics on Google. That’s why we’re introducing the +1 button, an easy way for Google users to recommend your content right from the search results pages (and, soon, from your site).



+1 is a simple idea. Let’s use Brian as an example. When Brian signs in to his Google Account and sees one of your pages in the organic search results on Google (or your search ads if you’re using AdWords), he can +1 it and recommend your page to the world.


The next time Brian’s friend Mary is signed in and searching on Google and your page appears, she might see a personalized annotation letting her know that Brian +1’d it. So Brian’s +1 helps Mary decide that your site is worth checking out.


We expect that these personalized annotations will help sites stand out by showing users which search results are personally relevant to them. As a result, +1’s could increase both the quality and quantity of traffic to the sites people care about.

But the +1 button isn’t just for search results. We’re working on a +1 button that you can put on your pages too, making it easy for people to recommend your content on Google search without leaving your site. If you want to be notified when the +1 button is available for your website, you can sign up for email updates at our +1 webmaster site.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll add +1 buttons to search results and ads on Google.com. We’ll also start to look at +1’s as one of the many signals we use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, including social signals from other services. For +1's, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality over time. At first the +1 button will appear for English searches only on Google.com, but we’re working to add more languages in the future.

We’re excited about using +1’s to make search more personal, relevant and compelling. We hope you’re excited too! If you have questions about the +1 button and how it affects search on Google.com, you can check the Google Webmaster Central Help Center.

The comments you read here belong only to the person who posted them. We do, however, reserve the right to remove off-topic comments.

52 comments:

Don Giovanni said...

@google you've been following my tweets haven't you?

+1

David said...

welcome to the future of webspam: rooms full of people in asia "+1 ing" your pages for you.

Is this REALLY the best idea?

Jo said...

Why not just call it "Like"

rb said...

-1

AngelG said...

Will you be launching the button on Mexico too?

Frank said...

Usual negative comments, blah blah. Google mostly knows how to deal with spam.

IMHO It's a great idea, if implemented well it could help users find excellent content. Makes all our lives easier.

Just waiting for the widget for our sites now.. any timeframe G?

David Quaid said...

I think this is going to be helpful to graphic designers and content producers. Real people can vote for quality sites and this should be a boost for them.

Let's hope that this continues to cut down spam and junk SEO.

schtreber said...

If only your friends +1 counts, than there is no option for spam to come around.
I like the idea. Go for it!

Michael said...

Google+1 Launch on Search. Good for website content relevancy, not for Search Ads. Thoughts?

In terms of spam, yes there will be people creating +1 on client's pages, but I'm assuming the end user will only see results for people that are associated within their Google account. In that case they wouldn't see Spam endorsements. I guess we will have to wait and see....

I like the +1 for website pages as these can be truly relevant and helpful. I'm skeptical about endorsing an ad or search result listing.

CultMetalSerge said...

Will there be any analytics built around this to see how many people +1 content on your site? If yes, will this be a part of Webmaster Tools or Google Analytics?

Thanks!

Gonçalo said...

I'm just afraid that websites will be ranked not for their quality but for ammount of "likes". It's easy for any bad website to have thousands of Likes in minutes, and there are good websites with few visits and likes.

Like David said, is this really the best idea?

Quantity isn't quality!

Richard Hornsby said...

Okay, I am a huge google fan and I will not, under any circumstances, notate how ironic it was that 40 people "liked this" in Google Reader. I will also, under no circumstances, point out how strange +1d looks. Listen Google, this is another bomb waiting to happen, like Google Buzz and like Side Wiki; please don't do it, please come up with something that people really relate too, like "cool" or "recommend" or something else, just not +1.

Godstempel said...

It's a great idea, besides Mark already owns the word "like"!

Pbsathyanarayanan seo said...

It makes the people to know about all the pages viewed by that particular person.........

It will be like showing the person's browse history to others.....

LYOeN said...

@Jo they cant call it like because they are just so much cooler than Facebook :P ...

Loving this social battle, bringing some great new things to the big www.

Christopher Copywriter said...

+1 Google - well done!!

chris.

http://www.christophercopywriter.com

Kh.Mohsin said...

I think this will increase the speed/number of FAKE Profile creation by "+1".
because this "social" attitude is already quite annoying and no one wants his likes/dislikes to be exposed so publicly.
I was not expecting that Google will follow this "so-called Social" bandwagon.
Privacy is very important.
Also How anyone is supposed to decide whether or not I "+1" a search result while he is on the results page, before he clicks through to read what's there? Cool Insight ;)

Beben Koben said...

it's function similar like google bookmark, right?
nice nice nice

selfpropelleddude said...

About time too!

Karen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brandon said...

@David

I'm sure they will implement measures to prevent +1 spamming.

I do suspect the first people to get this on their sites will have some advantage... Bring it Google! I'm ready!

Thomas said...

HMMMM taking a page out of the FACEBOOK manual are we????

Bet the Blackhatters and Spammers of the World are gonna be all over this!

Asif Anwar - SEO/SEM + SMM + Internet Marketing Strategist in Bangladesh said...

Quote "Sometimes it’s easier to find exactly what you’re looking for when someone you know already found it. Get recommendations for the things that interest you, right when you want them, in your search results." What if I found it to be bad and don't "Plus One" it?

Umarfaruk M said...

when we can expect this option to all?

BitDefender said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gabi said...

Question: Will not big brands have an advantage with this factor? How new websites can compete with them in social authority?

Animesh said...

What I think after reading the post is

1-It will give new way to web-spammer.
2- People will create more & More fake account.
3- People will add thousands of Emails(available in market) to add them in their friend list & to recommend.
4- Google is Just trying to compete with Facebook Like with no value addition.

aakankshak said...

Helpful in some cases but not a very innovative idea. besides, I am not even logged on to Google half the time.

admin said...

hey google..why not introduce -1 button also. Which means, if user find out that content that have a lot +1 is helpless (they got many +1 because of spammer), they can press
-1.

Jim said...

The problem with +1 is that you don't know if you want to click it until you have visited the target page. So then you have to make a point to go back to the SERP to click it.

Online Flash Arcade said...

i'm 100% agree with people who are saying this new option will allowed and open new door for spammers and fake web cantents

hope google re-think about that well

John's Secret Identity™ said...

Not worried about spam, unless people spam their friends. All it seems to do is tell you which of your friends on Google clicked the +1 button. There doesn't seem to be a way for spammers to affect it unless the on-site button can be rigged for drive-by involuntary +1s. I'm sure Google has thought of that and is including measures to prevent that. (Right, Google?)

Sidney said...

+1 and the Coolness/Connection Factor. I hope someone from Google's +1 team gets this because I think they are making a potentially fatal mistake. BTW, I am a big fan of Google and want to see them continue to succeed and innovate. I think they've changed the way we consume information.

With that being said I can totally appreciate the effort that Google is making to penetrate the social media sphere/crowdsourcing . There might be some traction with this latest attempt although the way it's being executed could be detrimental to the whole campaign. Just a couple of things.
1: "+1" is hard to relate to. I noticed the Google has the Microsoft problem. They have brilliant engineers but they lack the coolness/connection factor. I think the coolness/connection factor is integral to the success of facebook and apple. When you use apple’s and facebook’s technology you feel like you connect with something deeper than the technology itself. There is a feeling associated with using the technology. For some reason it seems that Microsoft and Google don't put as much emphasis on design and how it "feels" to interact with their technology. I don't have much time so I'll get to the point I want to make. "+1" has no emotional appeal. Where in your life have you ever "+1ed"something. I “like” stuff all the time whether I do in internally or express it externally. “+1” has no meaning outside of the Google context. So my first point has to do with what they named the technology. They could have come up with something that was already a part of the common lexicon and something a little “richer”. A synonym for “like,” Or something cool like “sweet”, “hot”, “value”, “love”. These might be a little corny but not as corny as “+1”
Secondly, I know they will be adding the +1 to pages on the web. They need to release that function right away. It should have been released for the pages before it was released for the SERPs. Right now it seems like Google is asking you to like how a SERP result looks. Because of how it’s positioned it seems as though it’s not asking how much you like the content on a page. For instance, to like something I’ll have to run a query in Google. Visit the page. Rerun the query or hit the back button a couple of times and then hit the +1 button. That’s a lot of work for a lazy guy like me and unfortunately I’m not getting paid by Google to do this work so instead of going back and +1ing a result I’ll just continue onto my business. Great Idea. Poor Execution. Please Fix. I want you guys to stay around.

Abdurrahman said...

this sounds great!!!

Angela Ward said...

Sounds great when I initially read this then I started to think a bit more...this is ripe for abuse surely?
Fortunately, the bright boys at Google, will have thought of that and come up with a mechanism to prevent abuse? Unfortunately, spammers are relentless, just hope it works.

Jim Symcox said...

When you think about it how will Google avoid the spammers who keep hitting the +1 button to increase their relevance profile? Plus as the lazy guy said who wants to go back and put a +1 when you're enroute to the site you found from the search term you entered.

Summer said...

Its a very innovative information since will support the unique content.

MagicDude4Eva said...

Well, it's broken for me on IE7 (when navigating across my site):


Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; My Toolbar)
Timestamp: Wed, 1 Jun 2011 18:42:48 UTC


Message: 'j[...]' is null or not an object
Line: 80
Char: 115
Code: 0
URI: https://ssl.gstatic.com/webclient/js/21550740_8d71de52/client.js

The Mystic said...

just got notified that the +1 button for pages is ready, and there is a [Get Code] button in the e-mail. Guess the site is overrun with traffic right now: it won't load!

Prof.Yeow said...

Implemented on my site:
http://www.noticiasandroid.net

Thanks so much for this option.

P.S.: Exist an option for "hidden" the button after the user do a click?

Anticitizen 1 - Santiago - anarko - 4n4rk0rp said...

The +1 make button makes too many http requests. 9 for the 1st button & aditional 5 request for every extra button on the same page.

danish said...

+1 makes the work easy and fast

Ash said...

It's an interesting experiment, like the thumb up on the old Google toolbar. Yes, people will artificially click the button but isn't the idea that a logged-in user will see the name of their "friend" of they clicked it? They won't see names of hundreds of spammers.

I don't use Gmail so I am rarely logged in and have no plans to use this feature.

Roy Hayward said...

I still don't quite understand how google knows that Brian and Mary are friends. Or why Mary would otherwise want to be influenced by Brian's preference or recommendation.

I like or share things on a social level, because 1) I know the people in my network, their interestes etc. 2) I think the content I am liking or sharing will fit with them or they will be interested.

I know that other people can see the number of non-friends that have liked a page, but do they really care? I never see a page with 0 likes and decide to not see what it says based on that. Neither do I always read a page with many likes. I normally only see that data after consumption of the page/site.

I understand that bing is incorporating facebook data, and for me that just seems like another reason to avoid bing.

My 2 cents, but how will google know who my friends are?

Wisata Murah said...

thanks for the information

Allen Brown said...

I would trust Google to be able to tell the difference between a real account and one that has been set up just for +1 spamming.

I think this is a good idea. If someone has a website with lots of authoritative content but finds himself always behind Wikipedia's article on the same topic, this could be great news.

+1

-l said...

+1 is the just implemented wrong. Google you need to hire social engineers too... you know the one's too cool for school, the ones who left class as opposed to going on to get their PhDz. Ones who know people and not just machines. Why would I want the world to know I like styleserver.de? and if i want my friends to know, I'll let them know on fb. you guiys are a million times better than fb so why try to copy them? there is one simple answer in my opinion personalize the web the google way and IT IS NOT DOING IT THE FB WAY....
your call google. i <3 u, you helped me all the time. but this is +1 thing is a FAIL.

AQUA said...

Hello,

I have added google +1 button on my sites surf page.Initially it is working fine but after surfing when i am loadin data through jquery it is not working.What to do?
Any help appreciate.
Thank you!

o6a!p said...

As Jim said:
"The problem with +1 is that you don't know if you want to click it until you have visited the target page. So then you have to make a point to go back to the SERP to click it."
I totally agree, seems like Google tries to force the inception of this product.

Trevor Price said...

Tried it on my home page, installed as per google, does not work, the button is not being displayed

Trevor Price said...

tried it on my home page, installed as per google, but it does not work, the button is not being displayed, wasted a 2hrs trying to fix, still no joy.

David said...

So if my friend on Facebook liked something on the internet, I don't get to see it on search results? Is that really fair to me? since I have the whole world on FB and a very few people on G+