Google Plus and the +1 Button

What is Google+?

Google has recently rolled out a new social networking "project" that competes with Facebook but is quite different. While Google+ does the same things as Facebook like sending message to friends, chatting, sharing images and links, the big difference is that you can choose who you want to share these things with.

The Circles Concept

This is a major part of Google+. You can choose who you want in your contacts such as family Circles, friends Circles, and co-workers Circles. This allows more privacy when sharing... as in you may share a close family event which you'd prefer to not show your co-workers. Makes good sense. There are also a whole group of new features that may or may not take off like Sparks, Hangouts, Mobile and Huddle.

 

How to get Google +

You can sign up here: https://plus.google.com/welcome

Does +1 Affect My Website's Performance in Search?

"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.

This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, and we’re constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality.For +1's, as with any new ranking signal, we are starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality."

- Google Webmaster Tools