How To: Stop "Liking" and Start Google +1ing

The Google +1 button isn't as ubiquitous as the Facebook Like button, but it's getting there. Google's working hard on improving its functionality, and recently we've seen some innovative features added. The +1 button now appears on over one million sites, and you can do more with it than you could initially.

Share Your +1s with Your Circles

If you want to take advantage of the latest +1 features, sign up for the Google+ Platform Preview. Just add your Gmail address, and as long as you're logged into your Google account, you'll be able to preview the latest Google+ features. I especially like the ability to share to your circles directly from the +1 button. Just add your own commentary, select your circles, and share.

Add the +1 Button to Your Site

Google makes it really easy to add the +1 button to your website. Just go to this website, and copy and paste the necessary code. You can play around in their editor to modify the +1 button to your tastes, and preview before you go ahead and add the +1 button to your site.

Publishers can take advantage of another new feature: +Snippets. When you +1 something and share to your circle, you'll see a preview of the site itself, with the link, headline, description, and picture. With +Snippets, you can customize the appearance of the preview. You can also add inline annotations, which shows which friends have +1'd their content.

Add the +1 Button Everywhere with Extensions & Add-Ons

Although the +1 button is pretty popular, it's not everywhere yet. That's quite inconvenient to those of us who like to collect +1s on our profiles. You can fix that with +1 add-ons or extensions, which let you +1 anything.

You can check out the +1 sections in my collections of Firefox add-ons and Chrome extensions, and check out the new Google Chrome extensions I've discovered below.

Google Chrome Extensions:

• -1 Minus - We've all seen posts and sites that are just awful. This button lets you declare your displeasure. If your friends have the extension installed, you can also see what they disliked.
• Like+1 - Save time and clicking by combining the Facebook Like button with the Google +1 button. 
• Plus One (+1) Everywhere - Add a +1 button to any page and you also get to see the total number of +1s on a particular site.
• ReaderPlus+ - Add the +1 button to posts in Google Reader.