Google removes plus one button from organic search | Hacker News Reader

Google removes plus one button from organic search

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25 pointsflavio8710 comments

Wow. Maybe they're actually realizing that people lately don't care about +1 (because it was both ambitious and horribly implemented in G+.)

At last some sanity sets in. That button really made no sense at all. In a typical scenario, I will decide whether I like or not only after visiting the page. And to visit the page, I have to leave the Google search results page.

Lots of people use Google as the gateway to their favorite sites.

Fair point.

I still find it awkward and counterintuitive for most people as a pre-clickthrough button though.

Exactly. The G+ count would have been more useful than a G+ button useful only to psychics.

Somehow I lost the ability to remove sites completely from my searches. Now that would be useful.

Click the result, then click back to the search results.

You can also manage sites manually from the settings. flower in the top right -> search settings -> block unwanted sites

There is now a link that says "Share" next to my search results, so I can still post things to my G+ wall. Is that a lot different than +1?

Yes, you can +1 a link without sharing it, similar to clicking 'like' for Facebook. Your +1s are minimally visible or only visible to you, just like a Facebook 'like' is minimally visible in a timeline.

Sharing on Google+ creates a more prominent but soft broadcast/recommendation/endorsement to the public or to your friends (via circles).

Out of curiosity, I tried two scenarios:

+1 button on a website/link = I shared with a circle and it counted as a +1 automatically. This is NOT what Google is doing when you share a search result, so you are not +1'ing that shared-from-the-search-results url.

Sharing a link directly through the Google+ UI at plus.google.com = NOT automatically +1'd. This is what Google is doing with the 'share' link in search results. Sharing a search result does not +1 it while it does broadcast it to the circles you choose.

Praise the Lord!

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