Essentially, the +1 Button works just like Facebook’s Like button in that it allows those connected to you to view sites that you’ve given your approval to. Google can then take these results and, once signed in to your Google account, display them when you do a search. Google has also hinted about carrying the concept over to ads, articles, and even websites—completely changing the way we look at search engine optimization (SEO).



Aden Hepburn, over at DigitalBuzzBlog, brought up a few good points about the potential for the same “click fraud” that initially plagued early banner ads, in addition to the possibilities of mining this new data for recommendation engines. Of course this also benefits Google’s own social profiles which are (naturally) required for the full experience to be effective. Should be an interesting year for SEO.