Google is set to take on Facebook in what is shaping up as another battle that could hurt Microsoft.
Google is set to take on Facebook in what is shaping up as another battle that could hurt Microsoft.
Overnight Google released tools that help users recommend other websites while letting companies link content with advertisments.
Businessweek said that the feature, called “+1,” lets Google users click a blue button to indicate their affinity for a company or product.
Matt Cutts, Google’s principal search engineer said that the new technology shows how many of a person’s friends are gleaned from Google user accounts.
Google, is adding social-centric features to draw more advertisers as they battle with Microsoft for the attention of web users. last month Microsoft expanded a search partnership with Facebook that was announced last year. Companies or services that Facebook friends have labeled as “liked” will show up right below results in Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
“All of Google’s properties are working on a variety of ways to make our products more people-centric,” Cutts told Businessweek. “This really is a natural evolution and a natural progression of our social search.”
With the new service, Google visitors can see which of their friends have clicked “+1” for a website in a search result. Google will highlight those people in Gmail chat lists, contacts and other Google services, including Reader — and plans later to add people connected via Twitter Inc. Also, Google will include the number of people in general who have said they prefer the site, not just online friends.
The feature begins to roll out to a small set of users today and to everyone else in the coming weeks, Cutts said. Google Profile users will be able to see what they have labeled “+1” on a dashboard.
