Yesterday on the Google Blog Rob Spiro posted an article about “Google +1,” Google’s new social endorsement button for websites that not coincidentally seems in direct opposition to Facebook’s “Like” button.  As Spiro puts it:

Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible… 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.

- Rob Spiro, Google Product Manager

No one is sure at this point just how strongly the new “+1″ system will factor into Google’s search algorithm, but this announcement is further support to what many have known for some time now – search is going social.  These kinds of turns in the search engine optimization industry can bring about heavy occupational changes for professional SEO’s as the less creative side of SEO (keywording, link building, speed optimization, etc.) gives way to the hyper creative side that looks more like, well, social media marketing or online CRM.

But if this announcement is causing anyone concern or disconcertment, take a deep breath.  There is a caveat – for the “+1″ system to function a person must have an established Google profile, an item that only some 3 – 4 years ago was a common commodity but has since ceded much ground to the Facebook profile.  Google also noted that it intends to incorporate Twitter into its sharing system in the future.  Perhaps to no one’s surprise, Facebook was conspicuously not mentioned as a future partner, again suggesting Google’s resolve to tackle Facebook in the social arena, yet will it be able to do so through the propagation of more Google profiles (not to mention the reactivation of long abandoned ones)?

We’ll have to wait and see.