Google has introduced the Google+ Share button, which lets users share links with their followers without endorsing them by clicking on the new button.
The new share button lets users click on this button to directly share the page with their followers. It lets users show their followers links without having to endorse them as the ‘+1’ button implied, which will be useful for content such as controversial news articles.
The original +1 button on Google+ let users publically recommend links which show up in Google search results. It also appears in the +1 section of a user’s Google+ profile. From here, they can share it with their audiences.
The new share button comes a few weeks after Google redesigned the social network to offer more customisable navigation, a new profile page, ‘conversation cards’ and a dedicated Hangouts page. It was its first redesign of Google+ since its public launch in September.
Google is focusing much of its energy into Google+ as it attempts to compete with Facebook for users and advertising revenue.
Content sharing is a major part of both of their strategies, as Facebook revealed new social news apps from publications such as The Guardian and The New York Times last year, which let users see what their friends were reading and discover new content.
The new Google+ share aims to drive more content to this social network to encourage better engagement from its members.
