Google Shopping gets social with Google+ integration for reading and writing reviews

Google today announced two new Google Shopping features: the ability to read reviews from people you know (via Google+, of course) and share your own reviews (surprise! more Google+). In short, Google is continuing to push Google+ into its various services, and certainly Google Shopping isn’t one to be left behind.

The first feature is only useful if your friends are on Google+. If so, then you can see if a product you’re looking at in your Google Shopping results has been reviewed by someone you know. It’s a little buried in the interface: to actually read the review, you have to on a particular product and then scroll down to the “Reviews” section to see reviews from your Google+ contacts, which will appear at the top of the list.

Here’s how it looks:

The second feature lets you write product reviews on Google Shopping for the benefit of your Google+ contacts, and other users. To write a review, login with your Google+ account, click on the product you’d like to review on Google Shopping, then click the “Write a Review” button at the top of the page.

From there, all you have to do is rate the product, write your feedback, and click “Publish.” After you submit your review, it will be publicly available to anyone who views that product on Google Shopping, and you can also choose to post your review to your Google+ stream:

This is a feature that Google+ users will love and everyone else will be unaffected by. It’s hard to say how many will actually use it, but I’m sure most will be die-hard Google fans. Everyone else will likely simply check out reviews on Amazon and other shopping sites.

See also – Google Catalogs moves beyond tablets and onto the Web through Google Shopping and Google testing same-day delivery service, taking on Amazon, others

Image credit: Robert Linder