Google +1 Coming Soon. But What Is It?

March 30, 2011 / in General Information, Social Media / by Mic Johnson

Ever heard of Google? Of course you have. We all have. Especially lately for those of us in Kansas City with the HUGE announcement that Google chose (out of 1,100 cities) none other than Kansas City, KS to be its very first location for their high speed broadband network that may make the internet 100 times faster than what is available currently in most U.S. homes. It almost wants to make me move to KCK just hearing that!

Something else you’ll see in the coming months when doing Google searches is the +1 button. Think of it as Google’s version of the “LIKE” button that Facebook rolled out on web sites, blogs, etc. throughout the internet.

The cool thing about this is that, while Facebook has 500 million people and counting, not everyone has a Facebook account or uses it regularly. Meanwhile “Google it” is said thousands of times a day, so a large majority of internet users are now going to have the +1 button at their fingertips when they do Google searches or want to rate articles, web sites, and eventually ads.

What we love about this is that in continues the frenetic evolution of the renewed power of the consumer…and more importantly, consumer referrals. As you see people that you know +1’ing things, you will know whether that product, service, web site, etc. is something that may be worth your time to check into.

Additionally, it’s going to continue to put pressure on businesses of all kinds across the internet to stay on their toes and make sure they are routinely providing value because EVERY business wants referrals. And make no mistake about it, a Facebook “LIKE” and the Google “+1” are just that: online recommendations and referrals.

Here’s an example of what +1 will look like.

Also, for Google’s explanation of +1, check out the video below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAyUNI3_V2c

So what do you think of of +1? Think you will use it? Think it will catch on? Let us know!