As many folks (thanks all) have written in to tell me, yesterday Google launched a social bookmarking/sharing service that uses the Share Icon. This is excellent. The Share Icon has been showing up in all sorts of places - it is, as hoped, becoming the standard icon used to represent sharing on the web.
As for Google’s usage of the icon, they use it in two places:
- on the bookmarklet:
- in the sharing pop-up window:
The usage on the bookmarklet is just right. From this icon you can post to Google shared stuff, to a variety of other sites, and send via e-mail. Click the icon to share the page, and then choose what mechanism you want to use to share it (e-mail, social web sites, etc.).
The usage of the icon in the pop-up window is a little bit incorrect in my view. The icon appears on the tab that posts the item to Google, which is not where you can send the item to other services. I think it would make more sense to have a Google icon on that tab, because you are posting to your Google shared stuff page from that tab:
It’s important that the Share Icon represent the ability to sharing to a variety of sites and channels, not represent sharing to any one specific web site, channel or service.
Speaking of sharing, I’ve been getting a lot of requests for a version of Share This that people can use on other platforms and on normal HTML web sites. I’m very pleased to announce that this is all in the works, and will be available in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned. 
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Dan Cameron adds this Comment:
Seems like they’re using it for branding more than it’s original purpose.
September 21st, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Nathan Strang adds this Comment:
I saw this and thought… Awesome!! While the service seems like another clone. having the goog(le) use your icon has really proven its purpose…
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
Dan, I don’t think they are using it for branding any more than they are using the feed icon for RSS feeds. Google is pretty good about using Google branding on their products.
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:22 pm
No ShrinkWrap Web2.0 Reviews » Blog Archive » Wordpress Howto - Add unique author comment styles to any theme adds this Pingback:
[…] King’s blog: see his article on Google’s sharing service for a recent […]
September 24th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Google Shared Stuff & Share This Icon Project adds this Pingback:
[…] Google’s use of the icon for Google Shared Stuff Alex notes in a post on his own […]
September 25th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Home security expert adds this Comment:
Hi,
Its interesting.I like this new sharing service.I informed about this to my friends and relatives.Overall, the service adds the social component to Google Bookmarks and integrates a lot of ways to share content online. It will be interesting to see if Google manages to build a community around the new service and if you can rely on it to find and disseminate what’s cool on the web.Its a great plugin, works with no problem with WP 2.3 beta 3.
Lets share and enjoy!
October 15th, 2007 at 2:23 am