Google had introduced a new feature called Google Hotpot last November, through which users could rate and review the places which they had been to, along with the ratings of their friends. Recently published numbers indicate that the service is surprisingly popular.
Over the months this feature has become very popular and is now getting over 1 million ratings per month. Part of this popularity is due to the fact that the ratings and reviews of friends definitely carry more weight than the reviews given by strangers or professionals.
Google has also added an app on the iPhone and on Android to integrate the feature with Google Maps and Google.com. This feature is currently available in 47 different languages. Users can also share their ratings and reviews on twitter.
Thanks to this growing popularity, Google Hotpot is now being rolled into Google Places and will no longer be known as Google Hotpot. This change is being made to help users to find and review the over 50 million places which are already on Google Places.
Google will also be adding more features to Google Places, in due course of time in order to increase and improve the interactiveness of the site.
