On the official Google blog, Hotpot project manager Lior Ron writes, "Hotpot is really going places: to a Google search box near you and around the world."
Ron also notes that Hotpot will now be available in 38 new languages, among them, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Korean.
The product has a seamless integration with Google Maps -- particularly Google Maps on Android. Here's a brief demo:
Google's integration of Hotpot into web search results is rather subtle at the start. For the time being, you'll see your friends' ratings and recommendations in line with place listings. If you want to see all your friends' recommendations, you'll have to click "Places" on the left side of the search page. And you'll have to be logged in to your Hotpot-linked Google account to see recommendations at all.
We've been following Hotpot since its launch late last year; the fledgling product is moving into a crowded space, one already dominated by big players like Yelp and Facebook Places. Still, this is an area of tech -- the overlapping pieces between location, behavioral marketing, and social media -- that's potentially lucrative and potentially game-changing for any company in the search and discovery business.