This article was published on March 30, 2011

How to: Enable Google +1 for your account right now


How to: Enable Google +1 for your account right now

By now you’ve heard about Google’s new social search feature called +1.The idea is that you’ll end up getting better results when your friends share good results with you. So, by clicking a +1 next to a Google result, you’ll be sharing your preferences as well.

Thanks to Google’s notoriously slow rollout of new features, there’s really no telling as to when you’ll get the +1 feature for yourself. Fortunately, Google is providing an opt-in to at least speed up the process somewhat, via its Google Experiments page.

All you have to do is head to that page, then select the +1 button “Join This Experiment” option. Once you do, you’re presumably added to the list of people who want to take part in the feature, and it should speed up the process for you.

I say speed up the process because a few of us here at TNW have opted in, yet we don’t have the service enabled. So, chances are that Google will be rolling it out to those opt-in persons first. In fact, there’s even a caveat from Google on the page:

Please note, it may take a while before you see the button in search results, and it may occasionally disappear as we make improvements.

Once you do have it, this is what you’ll see:

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