Google +1

Google are trialling their version of a Digg or a Facebook 'like'   +1 is Google's attempt to break into the social bookmarking sector.  In the trial, each website in the search results has a +1 button next to it and each time a user searches for a particular product, the results will indicate not only sites that the user has +1'd themselves but also sites which have been +1'd by friends in their (Google) social network, i.e. contacts from Gmail, Google Talk and Buzz.
 



The increase in popularity of social media has forced Google to use some of its metrics such as diggs, likes, tweets and retweets in their search algorithms.  The use of these metrics allows Google to deliver search results for events as they happen, something they have been criticised for in the past, particularly after Michael Jackson's death when Twitter became the only site for users to turn to for the laterst information online.

Google now has all the pieces needed for a social network (Google profiles, Gmail, Buzz, Google Talk, +1, Android and an app store) but still nothing to link them all together.

Google have stated that +1 will not be used as part of the search algorithm at launch but it is something they will be starting to look at.

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.

See the Webmaster Central Blog for more information
Opt in to +1 here
You will be able to add a +1 button to your site here