Official: Google “Share” Experiment Sends Pages From Search To Google+

A Tweet this morning from @BerianReed, head of search marketing of AutoTrader UK,  uncovered some potentially deeper integration between Google Search and Google+.  Reed spotted a new option in the results that showed up next to the URL, a “Share” link.  Upon hitting the button, users are prompted to share directly to Google+ from the results pages.  The result is included as a link and users are given the ability to add a comment:

Surprisingly, users can share pages that they haven’t yet clicked through.  Currently users can only +1 a listing from the results page, something that is a much weaker sharing signal.

This image was taken from Google UK and we were unable to replicate the results ourselves.  Photo courtesy of @BerianReed.

Postscript by Barry Schwartz: Google’s Product Manager Sean Liu announced on Google+ later this afternoon that this is now official. He wrote:

Starting today, we’re rolling out a new experiment to show a Share link in Google search in place of the +1 button, making it easier for you to share a great website with your friends. Now when you click the Share link next to a result, you can add a comment about why you found it useful. You can then choose if you want to share it publicly or just to your Circles and it will post to your Google+ stream, making it easier for you to share directly from the search results page. This will appear for those searching in English.