The Launch of a New Experimental Social Web Feature: Google +1

Direct to GOOG +1 (Opt-In)
Here Are Links to Articles About the New Service:
1. “Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button” (by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land)
A complete overview by Danny. Pass this post on.

Is +1 (pronounced “Plus One”) part of the new social network that Google’s long been rumored to be building? Or is +1 simply that “social layer” that Google has said would come and isn’t really meant as a rival to Facebook?
Yes.
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Beginning today, a small percentage of Google search users on Google.com in the United States searching in English will now see a +1 button next to search listings, when they are logged in.
Don’t see it? Don’t panic. Unlike the iPad 2, +1 buttons are in plentiful supply. Just visit Google Experimental, where you can select an option to force it to appear in your searches.

2. The Official Google Blog Post About +1
3. “With +1, Google Search Goes Truly Social — As Do Google Ads” (by MG Siegler, Techcruch)

Google +1 is an extension of what Google has been doing for a while with Social Search, Google’s Matt Cutts tells us. In their most recent update to that feature, results were surfaced and highlighted when someone in your social circle shared something on a social network like Twitter or Buzz. “People really like this aspect of social search,” Cutts says.
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Cutts wants to be very clear that this +1 data is public. While a big aspect of +1 is sharing results with your social graph (which is still sort of confusing given that Google isn’t an actual social network, so it’s Gmail chat contacts, Reader and Buzz friends, etc) , it is also about using that data in aggregate to highlight better results for everyone. For example, on a result that has been +1′d, you’ll see if any of your friends have +1′d it (in a similar way to the current Social Search look with people’s tiny profile icons under the result itself). But you’ll also see that X number of other people that aren’t in your social circle +1′d it as well.

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