Google +1 Silent Launch of Chrome Extension

The Google +1 Button extension allows you to “+1" a web page, but you already knew that.  Recently, they opened up browser wide so virtually anywhere you go on the web, you can plus pages. That’s important. 


You no longer have to rely on a site to implement the +1 Button, you can invoke the functionality through your browser. Imagine if Facebook partnered with Google and made an extension to “Like” any page on the web through it, it's kinda the same idea.

For now the +1 Button just shares content you "plus" on the web. But I have no doubt they will use this data as a way to affect Google Search itself and likely even more important, effect Google ratings. That’s huge. The button also is starting to play a role in how Google serves up advertising to you. But this concept may make people wary of such a button.


Google describes +1 as:

In addition to the practices described in the Google +1 Button Privacy Policy, by installing this extension, all of the pages and URLs you visit will be sent to Google in order to retrieve +1 information.

You read that correctly, “all of the pages and URLs you visit will be sent to Google”  and it doesn't matter if you don’t click the button. Hmmm.  


So, like it or not, here comes Google +1, another factor in driving sites up the Google search engine or a de facto way to monitor what people are reading on the web.  You decide.