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Google‘s proliferation of the +1 button continued Wednesday as the company added the feature to image searches.
The button, which was introduced in March as an answer to Facebook’s “Like,” is equivalent to a stamp of approval from Google users. Over the past few months, +1s have appeared next to news articles, on websites and even in ads.
Why images? In Google’s Inside Search blog, Xiaorui Gan, a software engineer at the company, describes the following scenario: “Let’s say you’re looking to summit Mount Kilimanjaro and want to inspire a few of your climbing buddies to join you. You search for [mount kilimanjaro summit] and switch to Images mode to find rows and rows of photos testifying that this peak can indeed be conquered. By hovering over one of the images, you can quickly recommend this photo to your friends by clicking the +1 button.” Soon, she continues, you’ll be able to see which photos in your search results they recommended as well.
While that seems like a contrived example, Google is clearly keen on integrating photos into its social media options. Earlier this month, Google began letting users +1 photos that appear in Google+ as well.
Meanwhile, in a test of Google’s Image Search, we were able to +1 an image, but our +1 didn’t show up in searches yet. Perhaps Google is still working out the kinks for this feature.
What do you think? Do you long to +1 images you like or do you think this is a superfluous feature? Let us know in the comments.
http://mashable.com/2011/11/09/google-plus-one-image/
