Introducing the Google+ Share Button
When your visitors come across something interesting on your site, sometimes you want to encourage a simple endorsement (like +1). Other times, however, you want to help visitors share with their friends, right away. Today's new Google+ Share button lets you do just that.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had already extended its +1 recommendation control to websites in 2011 through a web-wide +1 button, alongside the launch of Google+ as a service built around sharing. The new control separates a lightweight endorsement from an explicit act of sending content to friends.
The rollout follows Google’s earlier effort to make +1 available internationally, and turns Google+ sharing into a widget publishers can place directly beside their content.
First-order effects
- Website publishers can add a Google+ Share button when they want visitors to distribute an item to friends rather than merely register a +1.
- Google+ gains a direct off-network acquisition and distribution surface on participating sites, while +1 retains its role as a lighter recommendation signal.
Second-order effects
- Publishers using both controls can distinguish audience behavior that signals approval from behavior that actively routes readers to social contacts, making placement of Google widgets more consequential.
- The Share button gives Google another embedded route into publisher pages, building on the earlier webmaster-facing +1 integration rather than requiring sharing to begin inside Google+.
Third-order effects
- If publishers adopt separate endorsement and sharing controls, social platforms will compete not only for on-site engagement but for the default widget that routes external content into their networks.
- The change points toward publisher pages becoming distribution interfaces where social networks seek persistent, branded share routes alongside content.
The trend: Social platforms are moving sharing controls onto third-party sites to turn publisher traffic into network distribution and social referrals.