There has been a lot of discussion in recent months about how Google plans to start using social to promote web pages. Well, one way seems to have recently popped up – recommendations through the G+ buttons on websites.
Last night I plussed a page I had written (if I don’t recommend it, why should I expect others to?) and noticed a “RECOMMENDED ON …” link. So today I looked a little deeper, and it is certainly now standard across the site I was reviewing.
For example, on the website shown, if I am logged in to Google on my personal account it recommends a recently plussed page about bananas:
If I log out of Google, it recommends another recently plussed (more recently I think) page:
I have already Plussed the Usain Bolt article, so that could be why it does not appear when I am logged in.
If I am logged in on the business account, I get 3 recommendations:
The business page is not active on Google Plus (that is against Google TOS) but it is connected via email with my personal account. Maybe this connection is why there are 3 recommendations – my personal account is considered a trustworthy “vote” of those pages?
Certainly interesting, and no doubt more of this to come in the future.
What can we learn from it? No idea – just keep plussing my pages 🙂