The +1 button has been around for several weeks, appearing on more than a million websites without much social activity. Google and that website knew that you +1′d, but friends wouldn’t unless they also visited the page. There was never a direct link to Google+ for sharing – well, at least not until now.

Google has just announced that it is rolling out a new feature of its +1 button that will make it much easier for users to share interesting web content with their circles. Similar to how many Facebook and Twitter Like/Tweet buttons make it possible for someone to pass along an interesting article, the revamped +1 button layer will open with sharing options. The widget will let users add comments and choose which circles or contacts to share.

There’s also a new feature called +Snippets, which reveals choice information from articles. The snippets include images, headers, and links, very similar to those automatically-generated when sharing a link on Google Plus. The snippets provide a quick look at the contents of a post which helps people decide if they should click the link. (Google’s even providing webmasters with options for what to include in snippets).

Not everyone will see the new +1 button right away. Google says that it is rolling out to users over the next week, so be sure to check back periodically to see if your account has been updated. To trigger this and future Google+ innovations right away, join the Google+ Platform Preview user group and await your email confirmation.

via Google