Google has introduced Plus One which is a way for users and their friends to find recommended content online. The aim of Plus One is to publicly give content a personal stamp of approval.This could be a recipe, an article or an ad. Appearing as a small clickable icon next to each search result and text ad, the user is provided with the ability to share recommendations with their Gmail address book, Google Reader, Buzz contacts and eventually Twitter (no mention of Facebook yet).

The Plus One button provides further integration of social and search and is a direct competitor to the Facebook “like” button.  Google have developed search results not only based on relevancy but also on relationships. This benefits the searcher because the recommendation comes from the people that matter at an appropriate time (when they are searching). The time relevancy of the recommended content is what sets Plus One apart from the Facebook like button. The like button provides recommended content to friends however, it does not provide them with this recommended content when they require it. How many irrelevant “likes” have you been annoyingly notified of?

The integration of the Plus One button should affect Pay Per Click search (PPC) clicks. A user that sees an ad that has a high volume of Plus One recommendations will be more inclined to click. This will improve the Ad click through rate improving Quality Score and therefore help lower the cost per click.

Google is slowly rolling out Plus One starting in English on Google.com. If you want to be one of the first to start using Plus One visit the experimental search site to sign up to the Plus One experiment.