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Google just recently introduced the +1 Button to move towards a more social search. The +1 button is added to each search result on Google and allows users to share what results they liked +1’d. User’s friends can see the +1 in their search results and hence act on this piece of recommendation. These +1 are also used as lists to spice up the otherwise boring Google profile pages and to influence the search results rankings.

Google users must reside in the US, have a Google Profile, be logged in and enable +1 to see how it works.

Whether the +1 is useful or not is too early to call. But a noteworthy feature is missing: a button which can be attached on news posts to let visitors +1 their content. Just like when Google Buzz was launched an ugly hack was needed for months until an official buzz button was made available. The buttons does exists because there is personalisation option available referring to non-Google sites.

Google claims the button is “coming soon” but I couldn’t wait, so I looked around the code, and looked some more, until I found the button endpoint hiding from me, obfuscated, in a stray piece of javascript.

Check out these live Google +1 buttons:
[since this was posted the button is available to anyone]

as seen on Fanity integrated in the right-hand side bar.

You can make them horizontal or vertical just like Twitter retweet and Facebook like.
[since this was posted the button is available to anyone]

What I found out:

• They work! Clicking the button (try: Fanity) indeed makes your +1 link appear on your Google profile.
• If the button is red with an exclamation mark you are not logged in or from outside the US. Check out the screen cap below.
• These buttons also reveal the total number of +1’s by changing the request URL. For example Google.com has 982 +1s, Techcrunch.com 241, Reddit.com 125. Whether this is a total count from my friend-circle only I’m not sure, but it should since that would make more sense.
• Google needs some more A/B-testing on alignment of the total +1 count.
  

An image for when Google takes it down, or you are not from the US/logged in:

As seen on: