Google announced over at the Blogger Buzz blog that two new “gadgets” will be available to users of the popular Blogger blogging platform. Both “gadgets” will more tightly integrate Blogger blogs with Google’s social network, Google+.
The first, the “+1 button gadget”, simply places a “+1” button on your blog for people to click. This will not be the same as the “+1” for individual articles. Readers will be able “+1” your whole blog. Google shared what they think this should mean in the blog post:
If you’re wondering what a +1 means, think of it as a public stamp of approval from your readers. As soon as someone clicks on the +1 button next to your blog, they’ll also have the option to share it with their friends, contacts, or the rest of the web.
The second new “gadget” is the “Google+ badge gadget.” This gadget will allow readers to add a blog’s author or blog itself into one of their circles. This will allow them to follow the blog’s posts on Google+. Google points out that if you blog under a pseudonym you will need to set up a Google+ page specifically for your blog for this for the badge “gadget” to work. Google also states you will need to “copy your Google + ID (personal or Page) to configure the brand badge gadget for your blog.”
To enable these new “gadgets” simply head over to the “Layout” tab of your blog in Blogger and click “Add a Gadget.” As a reminder, you might want to switch to the new Blogger layout while you are at it, as the old version will soon become obsolete.
It appears Google wants the “+1” to be as popular as Facebook’s ubiquitous “like” button. They have already integrated Google+ very heavily into the Blogger platform. To them I say good luck. There are plenty of stories suggesting that Google+ is not making much headway against Facebook.
