This morning Google announced a social bombshell, a new service called +1 that competes directly with the Facebook like button as a signal for determining what content is most relevant to an individual. Fortunately for Google, it has the world’s largest search engine to integrate this product with immediately, giving publishers a significant reason to implement +1 within their sites. Google accounts for more than 50 percent of incoming traffic on most sites, while Facebook is currently running a distant second in referring traffic (more then 10 percent of our own traffic comes from Facebook). For now, the new product is being offered as an experimental service, although there’s no doubt the company plans on making it a widespread feature. How important social is to the world of search is still debatable, but we’ve long argued that it’s a critical component, since liking, tweeting, and now +1ing (what a horrible name by the way) may have much lower friction than placing a hyperlin...