Google+ Companion

Discovering What +1 Is All About

The great thing about having a +1 button rather than a Like button is that it doesn’t necessarily mean that you approve the post (although most of the time that’s what it implies). I’ve seen people post the death of a loved one on Facebook, and other people click Like, which is a rather odd way of passing on condolences.

But +1 is more generic, and it adds your name to the group of people who want to associate themselves with a post or web page. It isn’t, however, another form of the Share icon. You still need to share content for it to appear in your Stream.

Google has integrated +1 with many of its services, such as Google Search, YouTube, and Google Reader. And people can add the +1 icon to their websites, ...