As many of you may have heard or seen on your Google searches, Google recently introduced the “+1” feature. According to Google, the “plus one” button that you now see alongside your organic and paid search results is shorthand for “this is pretty cool” or “you should check this out.’” If you are logged into your Google account and conduct a search, each search result will include a line that shows who in your social circle +1’d that result, and more recently, will also show how many people in general have +1’d that result.

Google’s plan to establish the world’s largest online digital library and bookstore has prompted several parties to file last minute oppositions to the legal settlement allowing the company to do so. American companies such as Yahoo!, Microsoft and Amazon as well as several authors, publishers and copyright holders represented by the European Commission are all coming forward to voice their objections to an agreement that could potentially grant Google a monopoly on the competition for the availability and sale of millions of out-of-print books as well as price-setting power for those books. Despite the large benefit it would provide for readers and authors, disputes claiming a lack of privacy protection are currently being investigated by the Justice Department.