Google partnered with several sites including Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Reuters, Nordstrom and others (including social sharing tool AddThis) to display the +1 feature today. Google will deploy the +1 button on Google properties such as the Android Market, Blogger, Product Search and YouTube in the coming days.
Get Started with Google +1
To deploy the feature on your Web property, visit the +1 button tool on Google Webmaster Central. You will be able to configure a small snippet of JavaScript and integrate it where you want it to appear. Several button sizes and styles are available.
So what's so important about +1? According to the official Google announcement, "By giving your visitors more chances to +1 your pages, your search results and search ads could show up with +1 annotations more often, helping users see when your pages are most likely to be useful." Google is once again playing to its strengths - webmasters (and Web professionals) - to make the +1 button a mainstay on websites that rely on both its organic and paid traffic. Whether it can compete in a landscape full with social services is something only time will tell.
Website Magazine will be covering the +1 annotation feature in greater detail in the coming days an in future issues of the print publication.