Google, in its attempts to add social networking capabilities to its products, has introduced a brand new way for people to personally endorse search results and web pages.

The new feature called the +1 button will appear when you search using Google.  It will give people the liberty of recommending search page results to their friends and those in their social networks by clicking the +1 button. In the thick of increasing competition from Facebook, Google has introduced this new feature only a year after Facebook provided “Like” buttons.

Some analysts predict that the “Like” buttons are likely going to give traditional search engine ranking algorithms for finding information online a tough time. Matt Cutts, who is a principal engineer for search at Google, however, cited that the +1 buttons were part of Google’s own social search efforts and had not been brought forth as a direct response to Facebook’s “Like” feature.

It isn’t just the search results where the +1 buttons will be appearing. They will also be seen in the paid ads displayed alongside the search results, and Google has plans on letting third-party websites display +1 recommendations directly on their own pages, as well. Adding the +1 feature is likely going to increase the rates at which ads are clicked on, as already observed in an internal test. But whether to use the +1 recommendations as a ranking factor has not been decided yet. Till then, the +1 buttons will only be used for recommending sites and search results. Last year, Google faced privacy criticisms when it launched Buzz; and keeping that in mind, they has made clear that the +1 tags are public.

Do you use the LIKE button in Facebook?  Does something like “LIKE” or even share buttons found on many websites attract you to share information with your networks?  Many business professionals pay no attention to these gimmicks.  So are they relevant in business?