Google's +1 recommendation button expands to Android Market

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) extended its +1 recommendation button across the web, including the online outpost of its Android Market application storefront, offering consumers a one-click mechanism to promote their favorite content, news and merchandise to their friends and contacts. Google first unveiled +1 in March, but its initial scope was limited to recommendations within search results and ads. The +1 button now spans across Google-owned properties like Blogger, YouTube and Product Search as well as partners like Best Buy, Nordstrom, Reuters and Bloomberg.

"With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world," writes Google software engineer Evan Gilbert on the company's blog. "The next time your connections search, they could see your +1's directly in their search results, helping them find your recommendations when they're most useful." Gilbert adds that Google continues to roll out the +1 button across English-language search results.

The addition of the +1 button continues Google's recent push to improve Android Market discovery. With the storefront now exceeding 200,000 applications and consumers averaging 1 billion app downloads every 60 days, Google last month introduced revised top app charts touting more current and relevant results specific to each user's country of origin as well as top new free, top new paid and top grossing lists. A new Editor's Choice feature spotlights staff recommendations across multiple categories, while the new Top Developers designation awards a special icon to developers creating the highest-quality, most popular apps.

Also introduced at May's Google I/O 2011 developer conference: Improved related apps recommendations indicating Android Market content frequently browsed by consumers who viewed a particular app and apps that people tend to install alongside that solution, as well as an emphasis on trending apps--i.e., those quickly growing in daily install volume.

For more:
- read this Official Google Blog entry

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