Google +1 is all about sharing on the web, an easy way for Google users to recommend their content right from the search results pages as well as from their site. It relies on the people recommendations. For example, if you like a product or service you can click +1, which would be used to help your  friends and contacts right when they’re searching for relevant topics on Google. Read more about : Google +1

If you use Google Analytics to track site data, you can now link your Webmaster Tools verified site to an Analytics profile when they use the same Google Account. That will make your Analytics profiles accessible within Webmaster Tools, and you will be able to access more easily the below mentioned Analytics features: Google Analytics Referring Pages : View your Google Analytics Referring Pages report directly from the Links to your site page in Webmaster Tools. This report helps you understand the overall trends in traffic volume from referrals, as well as the sites driving those trends. Google Analytics Dashboard : Access the Google Analytics Dashboard directly from the Analytics link in the top left bar when you’re on a site-related page. How to link a verified site in Webmaster Tools to a Google Analytics profile? There are a few steps involved, On the Webmaster Tools home page, click Manage next to the site you want, then click Google Analytics profile. Select the prof...

This video talk about utilizing some features in Webmaster Tools as though you were optimizing for www.googlestore.com. This is just a 10mins video, but will clear so many of your queries.

There are times when the website(s) is taken down due to ongoing site maintenance, or legal or cultural requirements. Google says - " Outages that are not clearly marked as such can negatively affect a site’s reputation . " In that scenario due to the ongoing site maintenance, or legal or cultural requirements, there are methods to deal with the planned website downtime in a way that will generally not negatively affect your site’s visibility in the search results. How to avoid the negative impact on website's visibility during the 'Planned Site Downtime' in Google Search Results? Instead of returning a 404 Not Found HTTP result code or showing an error page with the status code 200 (OK) when a page is requested, it’s better to return a 503 HTTP result code (Service Unavailable) which tells search engine crawlers that the downtime is temporary. Moreover, it allows webmasters to provide visitors and bots with an estimated time when the site will be up ...