A new Google feature which allows internet users to mark up pages for friends and family could have a positive impact in the online marketing world.

The 1 feature has been designed by the search engine giant to compete with the Facebook 'like' button which aims to share information between friends on the social media site.

It will appear next to adverts and search results which friends have flagged up on the search engine.

'Like' has been a popular and useful tool in digital marketing campaigns using social media, and Google is hoping that the 1 button will have a similar success rate.

In the official Google blog product manager Rob Spiro said: "Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible. But relevance is about relationships as well as words on webpages."

This feature is the next step in a campaign to help Google users share information, after it began to include results posted by friends on social networking sites within its search results.