Something which reflects in using a Google Product is its performance. Google offers a lot of webmaster tools, which allows you to track page load time such as by using Google Analytics Code in WordPress. But launch of Google +1 Like button was not that effective, rather it couldn’t perform well in terms of speed and efficiency. If you have a set of Social media count buttons on website, Google +1 button is the last one to load. Wake up Google, you are not one of the Lazy asses. 😛
Well, finally we have an update from Google, The Faster +1 Button. The following article is about the new Google +1 button update and why it loads 3 times faster now.
Google Plus One Button Update
After getting feedback and a lot of complaints such as, +1 button takes long time to load, Google released this update for plus one button. Google claims that they have improved +1 button code and now it will load 3 times faster than the old +1 button.
How New Google Plus Button Loads Faster ?
New Plus One Button Update
When a page is loaded on browser, JavaScript loads itself synchronously and causing page load delays. But if we use Asynchronous JavaScript, also knows as AJAX, which lets browser to download JS file, while in parallel the page continues to load on browser and we don’t experience delays. Google has also introduced asynchronous snippet as improvement in new code and claims 3 times faster speed. You may refer the screenshot below which shows you the difference between old +1 button code and new +1 button code.
Difference between New plus code and old code
The above screenshot explains the difference of old code and the new +1 code with Asynchronous Snippet. Google Plus has a configuration tool which allows you to select between old code and new code. Refer to the screenshot below.
Configuration tool google plus one button
Once you grab your code from the configuration tool, check out below how to add new plus one button in WordPress.
Add fast Google +1 button in WordPress
Procedure to add new +1 button is similar but somehow if you missed it, you can read it here. Below is Google like button code for WordPress which you can add it in Single.php file.
Make sure you take full backup of single.php file using FTP before modifying it.
<g:plusone></g:plusone>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function() {
var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true;
po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
})();
</script>
Once you have added the code, check load time of Google +1 button on your website. Do let us know your feedback about your experience with new Google Plus Button, by posting a comment below.
With this we come to the end of this article and I hope you and your folks will enjoy faster browsing experience with Google +1 button Update.
It always annoyed me how slowly it loaded when it was first released. I actually was unaware that they made an update to their button that made it load faster – thank you! My blog doesn’t currently have any social media buttons but some other projects do and will definitely be updating them over the next week or so!
Interesting that you don’t use +1 buttons on this site? I’m sure there is a valid reason for it unless you’re like me and haven’t gotten around to installing them yet? =)
Appreciate your words and yes I have a valid reason behind not adding +1 button on this website. As I know, Google is slowly making updates with this button, which is not performing that well as it is suppose to. Hence, I am waiting for the day when +1 button loads without any funny gestures. 😛