Google can use your +1s in ads

You might want to have a look at your shared endorsement settings on G+, as Google will start to share your +1s as displays in Google Ads. So if you don't want auntie Margo to know that you once hit +1 on that Designer Vibrator because it looked cool in a design blog (Honestly, that's where you found it. Oh, hush), you better tighten your settings. We're not all Cindy Gallop, and some of us may want to not have every step we take shared with everyone for other reasons. Luckily G+ has very granular controls, and unlike facebook privacy settings don't suddenly change reverting a choice you've previously made.

You see the new policy Google has been alerting you to, allows for shared endorsements where anything you've commented or +1 can be shown to friends in your network.

So if you've liked the bike shop that repaired your favorite weekend vehicle, or if you've given them a favorable review, this will show up for your networked friends when they search for bike shops (nearby). Similarly, if you've really hated the food at a local Pizza joint, G+ will warn your nearby pals to avoid said place.

Google just turned into Yelp, facebook, Yellow pages and amazon reviews - all tied to your Google account. Perhaps we should all take a step back and look at what we share....

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Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
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Ehtesham's picture

Thanks for sharing this I was not aware and now i made endorsement changes on my g+ account.

Collin Davis's picture

Its all a way to get more people to use Google+ as a medium. Search is increasingly getting synched with social and Google wants the marketing community to strongly push social which is also one of the reasons for these actions.

I believe when companies realize that this could feature in search, they will also make an active effort to optimize their Google+ pages and try building a community around it.

Google had also tried integrating +1's in its search results but maybe it saw that it didn't yield much engagement, so its now shunned it. You no longer see the +1's even when logged in.

Dabitch's picture

The +1's are seen by other google friends you've circled though. Which is an odd thing, because if I want my friends to see what I like I'll SHARE IT with the share button.... If I'm +1:ing some random geek joke it doesn't mean I think it should be on my Mom's feed (she's circled only two people!)