By now, Google+ users have probably gotten used to the ubiquitous “+1” sharing function that now accompanies the Tweet button and Facebook’s ‘Like’ button on most webpages. If you’re a user of this +1 sharing feature, however, you could be receiving a little thank you note in the future due to a new feature that’s been spotted in the wild.

When combing through the results of your Google search query, you’ve likely noticed messages attached to some results that say “So-and-so +1’ed this,” meaning a member of one of your Google Circles liked the webpage and gave it a +1 approval which then caused it be shared with friends like you. It’s become a part of Google integrating Google+ networks into search results so as to make internet searches more social.

At any rate, if a member of one of your Google Circles +1’ed a page that you liked, Google has started including a link that will allow you to thank your Circle member for +1’ing the webpage. The feature doesn’t appear to be available widespread to all Google+ users (I couldn’t rustle it up on any of my search results), but SearchEngineLand played around with the feature (when it was available to them) and reported back the presence of the thank you option was inconsistent as the links only “appear sporadically on a range of search terms.”

However, when the thank you link does appear, Google+ users can send a thank you note to the Circle member that shared the link. State of Search was one of the firsts to spy the new feature, as seen below:

If you click that link to thank your Circle friend, a box will pop up in your browser that gives you a chance to personalize your thank you note with who you want to share the message with.

According to SearchEngineLand, the thank you message will then appear as a visibility-limited post on the wall of the Google+ friend that you thanked. The thanked will then have the choice to publicize the thank you message or humbly accept the gratitude privately.

Anybody out there seen this feature pop up on their search results yet? If you haven’t seen it, do you think you’ll use this much once it starts appearing? Let us know what you think below in the comments.