Google Introduces +1 Button: Ballot Stuffing Ahead

Fresh button lets site visitors vote for content.

Google has introduced a +1 Button (plus one button) that web publishers can add to their web sites.

It’s an extension of the search giant’s +1 feature for search results that let’s people vote for search results and share that with their connections.

As Google points out, the +1 button solves a big problem with the original underlying idea: why would you vote for a search result ahead of you actually visit the site content?

Still, it’s only a matter of time ahead of this gets gamed in a big way.

For a long time there’s been a theory that if your search results get clicked more they’ll move up in the rankings. It also helps if people don’t immediately bounce back from your site. People have tried to game this.

Now with +1 buttons a whole fresh game will be created to try to trick Google into thinking legitimate users are clicking on the button when they really aren’t. Hopefully Google’s algorithms are smart enough to snuff it out.