Google +1 button

[Guest]

This post is deleted!

[RikkiD22]

I don't believe so no.

I think people are adopting it early in the hope that it will be widely used and either increases CTR or it will be used as a 'social signal' ranking factor in the future.

[Pooks]

As you probably know, the idea of +1 is personal recommendations - so you can see what people you know gave the thumbs up to.  As to whether Google will use it as a ranking factor or not, they are suggesting they might, but cautiously:

"This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, and we’re constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality. For +1's, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality".

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=1140194

I guess the problem is that +1 signals could be manipulated like almost anything else so they will be treated as just one factor, in the context of many other factors.

Jen