When you boil down Social media, it’s about sharing information with your friends, peers, co-workers, family and followers.  If you like something you’ve read on the web, You can tweet it, share it on Facebook, post it to LinkedIn, Digg it, Stumble it, buzz it, email it and that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to social media sharing.  And now, Google has rolled out a new way to put your stamp of approval on web content…you can +1 it!

Here’s how Google explains the +1 button, “The +1 button is shorthand for ‘this is pretty cool’ or ‘you should check this out.’  Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1’s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.”  The idea behind the +1 button is that often it’s easier for users to find something they’re looking for when someone they know found it already.  Not to be confused with Google+, the company’s new social media site that is out in limited release,  the +1 button makes it possible to receive recommendations for things that interest you right in your search results.

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?  The kicker, you must have and be signed into your google account to see the +1 recommendations your friends have given.  Once signed in to your Google account, your +1’s will be stored under a new tab and can be made visible to the world or kept private.  The choice is entirely up to you.

Google has been continually making strides to get users the most relevant search results as quickly as possible.  That’s been their goal since the early days before “Google” became a verb.  Recently, however, they’ve begun to enhance search results by including information from people you know in Google search results because Google feels that, “relevance is about relationships as well as words on web pages.”

Most recently, Google took the final step toward making search results truly relational by rolling out the +1 button.  If you like something you’re reading or think it may be relevant to your family and friends, you need only click the +1 button and your recommendation will start appearing in Google’s search results.  While most of us weren’t even looking, Google upped the ante once again, taking perhaps the biggest step to date towards making search more interactive than ever before.

Want to learn more about this new Google tool?  Check out this video that discusses Google’s latest venture.