Today the plus one button was rolled out to Google Australia which means you can now +1 sites you like or want to recommend, with this we also noticed the arrival of +1 metrics in Webmaster Tools. To +1 a site you will need to be logged in to your Google account, you also need top be logged in when searching to see sites your contatcs have given a +1.
Below are a couple of screenshots, one showing some of the metric data being displayed in Webmaster Tools and the other a shot of the new look results pages on google.com.au. The below is just the activity screen available under the metrics menu, there are also "search impact" and "audience" options which show some different data.
One thing we have noticed is just how big an impact giving a site a +1 has on your own search results. In our experience, simply being logged in to our Google account never seemed to make a huge difference to the order of results, if any at all. One site we do visit often was always shown at #11 whether we were logged in or not, but after giving it a +1 and searching again, it's now showing up at #4. For those out there in the industry not in the habit of being logged out when checking up on rankings, now would be a good time to do so!
We really like the metrics available in Webmaster Tools and the new look results pages don't look half bad either. On that note we noticed a couple of changes to the home page of Google with the dark grey strip across the top, new "Google Search" and "I'm feeling lucky" buttons, and the red and grey menu to the left of the results. Feedback is split around the office in regards to the new look but I personally think it looks a lot better.
Article by - Mark Asciak.