30 Days With Google+: Day 21
Google+ is still in limited "Field Trial" mode, which is fancy for "beta version". That means that Google+ is still very much a work in progress, and that teams of developers at Google are hard at work tweaking and implementing new features for the social network. One such tweak that has been introduced during the 30 Days With Google+ series is a significant change for the +1 button.
Google is getting ready to take the +1 button to a whole new level now. Instead of simply adding my +1 to the tally of +1 votes, I now have a text field that pops up to enable me to share the content on Google+ as well.
I can still just +1 the old-fashioned way, but now a box pops up that says "Share on Google+". If I click in this box, it expands to become a larger text-entry field to share the Web page with Google+. I can enter a comment into the text field, and choose which Circles or individuals on Google+ to share the content with, then click the Share button.
The new +1 button behavior makes it significantly easier to share relevant content with Circles on Google+. A simple click of the +1 button, a brief comment about the content, choose which Circles to share with, and voila!
Previously, I would have copied the link from the article, then switched to Google+ where I would share that link and type in my comment. My old process is more tedious and makes it likely that I will only share things that really seem worthy of the effort. The new method, though, enables me to share with Google+ without giving it a second thought.
Currently, the feature is only available for users registered to experiment with the platform preview features--sort of the beta before the beta. Expect to see the new and improved +1 button behavior soon, though.
Read the last "30 Days" series: 30 Days With the iPad
Day 20: Google+ Makes 'Unfriending' More Polite
Day 22: Taming the Google+ Stream