Plus one … more
Social buttons on sites are not new. Add one more to the mix, Google’s “plus one” button.
Add-this, a company that makes adding these social and share buttons easy (with tracking and analytics), now has more than 340 different buttons to choose from. And in fact, this is not the first social button for Google. There’s
- a button to add a site to your Google bookmarks
- a button to share a site with your Google Buzz profile
- a button to share within your Google Reader account
- even a button to link to a Google Translation of the page you’re on
Now, there’s a new Google button they’re calling “plus one”. The phrase “plus one” (often times just “+1″) has a history in web forums and discussion groups. When a reader wants to simply agree with a post from another contributor, the convention is to reply, and short-hand comment, “+1″, is added to signify a vote in favour, of sorts, or support or agreement to the original post.
What’s a little bit interesting about Google’s +1 button, is that when I click the button, it logs to my Google Profile, and is publicly visible. So, like all things on the Internet, what you do, say and visit leave a digital footprint. My Facebook’s Like button clicks are visible to my circle of Facebook Friends, and now by Google Plus One clicks are visible to everyone. And Google is taking it a step further and using these clicks to build an even deeper profile about my likes to better target advertising, as they move further and further into behavioral ad targeting. So, if you Plus One a Tablet PC on Best Buy’s website, they’ll use that vote to know more about you and your intents and interests. Make no mistake, just like the Facebook Like button, this is all about Google/Facebook trying to get more information known about you, as you share your likes and dislikes around the ‘net.
Recently — in other button related news — Twitter added a new button to their quiver of buttony goodness, which make it easy to follow the site’s Twitter account.
Now, even without AddThis, adding these buttons is usually very simple. Normally there’s a few lines of code to add to your page or your site’s template. Some even have WordPress or Drupal Plugins, making it even easier.
Some sites love to add these buttons (and even had the “plus one” button launched on their sites on the first day), and others tend to shy away because they clutter and obfuscate the experience, making the actual content harder to find and read.
I personally think adding a few can be good, but done sparingly and elegantly, and only if users use them, so check your stats and referrals to ensure they’re effective and useful.