Google introduced its latest social tool Wednesday, March 30, the same day it settled with the Federal Trade Commission over charges of deceptive privacy practices in its introduction last year of Buzz, the social networking tool in Gmail.

Under the settlement, Google agreed to start a privacy program and undergo privacy audits for 20 years; it faces $16,000 fines for future privacy misrepresentations. This is the first time the FTC has charged a company with such violations, and the first time it has ordered a company to introduce a privacy program, the commission said.

According to the New York Times, the new social networking tool, +1, lets people annotate Google search results and ads so they can recommend Web pages to friends and acquaintances. It is the biggest feature yet in Google's long-awaited social networking toolkit.

The introduction of +1 and the FTC charges highlight two of Google's biggest challenges: heightened competition from Facebook, and near-constant criticism from privacy advocates and policymakers over its practices.

Of particular concern to Google is the fact that many people now turn to Facebook with search queries, like seeking the best place to go on vacation, because they trust their friends' advice more than that of an anonymous search engine.

With +1, Google wants to personalize search results. People logged into their Google accounts will be able to click a +1 button next to search results to publicly recommend the pages. People perusing search results will see how many Google users recommended a page and see names and photos of people they know.