Google+ button gets a design upgrade

Google+ got a quiet facelift Wednesday, rolling out a redesign of the "+1" button that aims to make sharing and promoting news on the social network easier. 

The Google+ buttons are now orange and white, and clicking on one will open up a sharing box to comment. That box then allows you to set your sharing preferences to be visible to everyone or only to certain individuals or circles you’ve set up, like all Google+ content, according to Slash Gear. You can also choose to not add a comment at all and just “+1″ the story as before.

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"The change is the latest example of Google’s evolving social strategy, as the company attempts to better integrate Google+ into its more established products," wrote Slash Gear blogger Chris Davies. 

Google defines the +1 as a feature to help people find and share relevant content, Mashable reported. Users can "+1" different types of content, including Google search results, websites, and advertisements. Once users "+1" a piece of content, it shows up on the "+1 tab" on their Google+ profile, in Google search results, and on websites with a "+1" button, according to Mashable. 

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Last month, Google unveiled "Search plus Your World," which allows users to “search across information that is private and only shared to you, not just the public web,” Google explained. In Search plus Your World, search results that received a lot of "+1s" tend to show up higher in results, according to Ian Lurie's blog, Conversation Marketing. 

Google had not released a statement about the upgrade as of Wednesday afternoon.