by Glenn Chapman, March 31, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google on Wednesday began letting people tip off friends to which Internet search results or online ads they think are "pretty cool."
The world's most popular online search service started adding "+1" icons that people can click to recommend resources to others.
The endorsements will start appearing in Google search results, product manager Rob Spiro said in a blog post.
He described "+1" as shorthand for "this is pretty cool."
"If you're looking for a new pasta recipe, we'll show you +1s from your culinary genius college roommate," Spiro said. "And, even if none of your friends are baristas or caffeine addicts, we may still show you how many people across the Web have +1'd your local coffee shop."
Factors that Google planned to build into the recommendation feature included chat buddies and contacts that registered users add through Social Circle and Content sections in their accounts.
To begin using the feature people must create or upgrade Google profiles, and to see +1s they must be logged into their accounts. The recommendation option was being slowly rolled out in English at Google.com.
People can sign up to use the feature at google.com/experimental/index.html.
The +1 feature was seen by some as a spin on widely used Facebook "like" icons that have spread far beyond the leading online social networking service to scores of websites that have added the buttons to their pages.
Google dominates a US online search advertising market valued at $13.59 billion but faces a growing competitor in Facebook, according to industry tracker eMarketer.
Facebook's share of the $10.1 billion Internet display ad market in the United States will likely grow to 21.6 percent this year from 13.6 percent in 2010, according to eMarketer.
The market tracking firm estimated that Google would take in $1.28 billion in US display ad revenue this year, up from $855 million in 2010.
Google's foray last year into social networking with a Buzz tool turned into a stumble for the California company, unleashing a flood of privacy complaints and negotiations with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
A settlement with the FTC over Buzz was announced on Wednesday.
Under the settlement announced by the US regulator, Google is required to implement a comprehensive privacy program and will be subject to independent privacy audits every two years for the next 20 years.
"This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement.
Alma Whitten, Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, apologized in a blog post for privacy shortfalls with Buzz, which Google launched in February 2010 as an answer to Facebook and Twitter.
"We are 100 percent focused on ensuring that our new privacy procedures effectively protect the interests of all our users going forward," she said.
The FTC alleged that the Mountain View, California-based Google used deceptive tactics and violated its privacy promises to consumers when it launched Buzz through its popular email service Gmail.
The FTC said Google led Gmail users to believe they could choose whether or not to leave Google Buzz but the options for doing so were "ineffective."
Controls for limiting the sharing of personal information on the network were also "confusing and difficult to find," according to the US regulator.
In a move separate from the FTC action, Google agreed in September to pay $8.5 million to settle a class action privacy lawsuit over Google Buzz.
