How to create a customized Google+ Share button

A quick post about something I was looking for some time, a way to share links to Google+ from outside their service. There are two interesting options available now.

Since I did a complete remake of my site, I like all components to fit in as I want. I went with different share buttons solutions in the past but I found them too cluttered. Hence the small black buttons for Twitter and Facebook at the top and bottom. I also wanted Google+ to join the game. It seemed that there was not an easy way to share URLs from outside Google+. The +1 button seems to get better, but I didn’t like it for my design

I did a new search today and I was pleasantly surprised that solutions are available now:

• This first solution from Alex Moss uses the URL from the Google+ mobile site to present a popup with the current URLs content. It is pretty neat stuff.
• I went on reading some of the comments of that solution and I found a Simple Google+ Bookmarklet by AJ Batac. Clicking the first link I was surprised to see a popup with the same look and feel as Google+. I was slightly confused with the “..You publicly +1..as ..” message (which does not mean you +1-ed or posted anything yet). However, when I clicked in the textfield below this message, I saw the rich URL info with the circles to share with, just as if I was inside Google+ :

So big thanks to Alex Moss and AJ Batac for developing both solutions!

Implementation

I choose the 2nd solution for now and as you see I have my own small Plus button above and below this article :)

JS will dynamically grab the active URL and title, and Google+ finds the metainfo (similar to Facebook Like which does this somewhat better to my taste)

I added spaces for clarity :

<div class="bookmarklet">
<a href="
 	javascript:(
 	  function(){
 		var w=480;var h=380;
 		var x=Number((window.screen.width-w)/2);
 		var y=Number((window.screen.height-h)/2);
 		window.open('https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/confirm?hl=en&url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'
 			&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title),'','width='+w+',height='+h+',left='+x+',top='+y+',
 			scrollbars=no');
  	  })();">
 	Share to Google+</a>
</div>

By the way, this is an interesting article about bookmarklets

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