Google +1 Button Hides In Search Results

Google Operating System blog reports Google has changed the behavior of the Google +1 button as seen in the Google search results. Instead of the +1 button being displayed by default, it is now hidden until you place your mouse cursor over the search result. Then the +1 button will show up and let you […]

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Plus 1 ImageGoogle Operating System blog reports Google has changed the behavior of the Google +1 button as seen in the Google search results.

Instead of the +1 button being displayed by default, it is now hidden until you place your mouse cursor over the search result. Then the +1 button will show up and let you click on it.

Here is a picture of the animation seen when you mouse over the search result, which brings up the +1 button and the right gray arrow bar on the right of the search result:

Google Plus Hides

Then when you mouse over the +1 button, it will turn blue and when you click on it, it remains blue.

This seems to be an effort to reduce the cluttered Google search results interface.

Postscript – Google sent us this statement about the change:

As we simplify the look and feel of the search results page, we wanted a way for users to easily see the +1 button when it’s most useful to them, such as when they hover over a result to recommend it or when a result has already been +1’d. By showing the +1 button when people want to click it rather than next to every result, the +1’d results stand out more. So far, this change has had an insignificant effect on +1 usage.

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About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.

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