Google took another step towards the further integration of social media into its offering last week when it announced the launch of the ‘+1’ button. The search giant said the feature would further its commitment to bringing users “the most relevant results as quickly as possible”, but added it would also allow for this to be based less on traditional keywords and more on users’ online relationships.

 Taking clear queues from the Facebook ‘Like’ facility, signed-in Google users can now make individual recommendations on posts, pages and sites by clicking the +1 button directly from their search results page. The group explained this could be interpreted as “digital shorthand for ‘this is pretty cool’” and that any such recommendations would then show up for others when they perform their own searches.

 But why is this something you would want? Well, according to Google, making choices in life can be a little easier when people have the knowledge, experiences and opinions of their peers to guide them. It may be someone is looking for a new coffee machine and, after a quick search, notices that one of their online associates has given a +1 to a specific type. It may, on the other hand, just serve as a note to that same person next time they’re surfing for something “pretty cool” to entertain them.

 MEC Opinion: While the vast majority of search algorhythm secrets are kept close to the chest of the major engines, we continue to see a greater emphasis being placed on social signals as an important ranking factor. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube now appear as a matter of course in the search results we see on a daily basis, while Google and Bing have stated clearly in the past that “social authority” is increasingly relevant in the future of what they do.

There should be no doubt, social media is not just a phase and will continue to impact all areas of online advertising and marketing. As an agency, we’re already exploring ways to stay ahead of such exciting developments and will ensure that, wherever possible, our clients reap the rewards. Like most forms of social media, however, we believe there are also great ways to actively engage with consumers, which could allow us to take advantage of social search in a more organic way.