Google reported on Monday the addition of the Spotlight button, which will show users stories their friends +1'd on Google+.

On its Google News Blog, Google announced the addition of the Spotlight button to its News SERPs to show searchers which of their Google+ followers +1’d a certain story. Currently, it is not believed to impact the ranking of the links themselves.

Integrating Google+ into search will help Google provide a better integrated web experience for their logged-in users. Moreover, socially shared content appearing on multiple platforms will help Google generate more traffic for its social network.

The addition of +1 button on news content pages has given Google a push in terms of content shared on Google+. Moreover, Brafton reported recently that the release of the Google+ API has resulted in the integration of the service on third-party client apps, such as HootSuite and Involver.

Making it as easy as possible for Google+ users to post and share content will improve the overall popularity of the website. From there, the social media marketing appeal for Google+ will continue to grow. Brafton recently reported that 61 percent of the top 100 global brands are currently using Google+ Pages to augment their social media marketing presence since the feature launched two weeks ago. 

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.