Both Google and Twitter are improving the social sharing experience for users on the internet by introducing their own buttons. Twitter’s new Follow Button
enables users to follow an organization or an individual directly from the current page without having to visit the member’s account page. A link to display a user’s Twitter profile in a popup window appears alongside the button.
Google’s new +1 Button gives users the opportunity to say to others “this is pretty cool” from either a search results page or from web sites and individual pages. +1 recommendations have the potential of improving a sites page ranking and through their use Google searches will be able to offer personalize results that incorporate content from:
- The user’s online contacts and friends
- Blogs, sites and other content submitted or created by friends
- Articles related to the user’s Google Reader subscriptions
- Content recommend by others using the +1 Button
- And from social sites like Twitter and Flickr
To use Google’s +1 Button, an individual will need to have a G-Mail account. Users’ +1 recommendations appear in their Google profiles, under the +1 tab,
and in annotations on sites which they have +1’d (yes, they have even created the terminology to refer to the use of +1: +1’s, +1’d and +1’ing ). Currently annotations only appear on Google sites with content in English. Thus, Google recommends that individuals only +1 pages that they are comfortable with sharing with the world. When clicking the +1 button the first time we are given the opportunity to specify if we want to let Google use our +1’s and other information around content and ads on non-Google websites. And just like with Facebook’s Like Button, one can withdraw a recommendation by clicking the +1 Button a second time.
The Google +1 Button comes in four styles: Standard (24px), Medium (20px), Small (15px) and Tall (60px) and is available here. The Twitter Follow Button is available here.
For more information: