Social icons are used to connect content and websites you like to your social profiles. A simple click can let your social network know what you find interesting and approve of.

Google and Twitter have added new buttons for web masters to add to their sites. Google added the "+1 button" and Twitter has added a "Follow" button. Even LinkedIn has added a "Share" button to join the movement.

More info on the new connection devices here.

Google explains it this way: "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."

Twitter's new button will let users follow a site "rather than just tweeting articles from it," Sullivan said. And on Twitter's blog, a staffer wrote that the "Follow" button is "a new way to discover and instantly follow Twitter accounts directly from the websites you visit everyday.