Google’s new recommendation tool: +1

Google is going more social with its newest search feature. The new feature, the +1 button, is a recommendation tool which works in a similar fashion to Facebook‘s ‘Like’ button.

The world’s most popular online search service started adding the +1 buttons on Wednesday and users who opt into the +1 button experiment in Google Labs will start seeing a +1 button next to each link in Google search results.

“Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible. But relevance is about relationships as well as words on webpages. That’s why we recently started to include more information from people you know—stuff they’ve shared on Twitter, Flickr and other sites—in Google search results.

Today we’re taking that a step further, enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called +1—the digital shorthand for ‘this is pretty cool.’ To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results,” according to Google Product Manager, Rob Spiro.

Google sees +1 as a useful tool because recommendations come from people you know. For example you’re searching for the best hotel or backpackers to stay in Barcelona, the +1 button will appear next to a result from a friend of yours that has stayed in that hotel or backpackers.

This new tool is almost a public deceleration to your friends and Google connections that you approve. When you +1 something, your name becomes associated with that link “in search, on ads, and across the web,” according to the company. It also shows up in a feed on your Google Profile, which is required to use the product.

The search engine is also giving advertisers the opportunity to benefit from the new addition as users can recommend ads from AdWords and AdSense to their friends.

Google also plans to roll out the feature to other sites across the web. Something Facebook has a head-start on with more than 2-million sites already using its ‘Like’ button.

The video below explains more about +1.: