Google rolls out a new Google+ Follow button for sites and new badges for Communities, Pages, and Profiles ...

Do you know Google+ now turned two years old yesterday.. To celebrate i, Google has announced an updated Follow button, a new Communities badge, and updated badges for Pages and Profiles.

Before today Google+ has had share buttons and +1 buttons, its has never had a follow button that users could embed on their own webpages until yesterday. Facebook and Twitter introduced their respective follow buttons in 2011 — Facebook's was once called a subscribe button. As one would expect, the Google+ follow button works pretty much the same as buttons from rival social networks. It's a simple javascript plugin for web developers that allows visitors to follow them on Google+ without ever having to leave the site they're visiting.

First up, let’s talk about the new Google+ Follow button, a standalone plugin that lets visitors follow you from your site. It’s still very similar to Twitter’s follow button, so don’t expect any major changes:

Above you can see how the button looks when you have yet to follow the Google+ user (left), when it is clicked (center), and after you have followed the individual. Since Google+ is all about circles, this button lets you add someone directly to your circles when you follow them, just like on the actual social network.

Google says the Follow button uses the same JavaScript as its +1 button, meaning if you have the latter already, all you have to do is configure the plugin and add the markup to your page. The +1 and Share buttons will also be updated automatically “over the next few weeks,” Google says, although they’re just getting minor changes to the visual style that’s more consistent with the recent improvements to Google+.

Next up are the new badges. Google says Community managers have been asking for a way to attract members across the Web, so it is introducing “highly configurable” badges for Google+ Communities.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Clicking the Preview button will open up the community page in a new browser tab. From there, visitors can view recent posts as well as join.

Google+ already had badges for Pages and Profiles, but they’re getting an update today. They are also more customizable, allowing for portrait and landscape modes, light and dark themes, as well as letting you turn certain items like the cover photo and tagline on or off.

Here’s the new Profile badge:

 

Here’s the new Page badge: 

The current badges will still be available for “up to 90 days,” meaning you have about three months to switch your site to the new version. After that, Google will automatically upgrade any Google+ badges to the new design.

Today’s changes aren’t massive, but we know Google can’t pass up an opportunity (like a birthday) to roll out new features. The Follow button in particular should help the social network grow, though one could argue that what it really needs is a boost in engagement.