Google begins reminding users of friends' birthdays

Following Facebook's lead, the Web giant will note when someone in a user's Google+ circle marks another year on the planet -- on Google.com

Google thinks birthdays are pretty special and as such is devoting some serious real estate to the occasion.

Much like birthday notices on Facebook, the Web giant has begun posting notes reminding Google+ users when someone in their network has successfully completed another journey around sun. However, in an interesting move, the reminders will appear on Google.com instead of Google's social network site.

Google's Irene Chung explained today in a Google+ blog post that the reminders will appear when Google+ users perform searches and include a link to the Google+ profile of the person celebrating (or not) their special day:

 Everyone deserves a little love on their birthday, so we're making it easier for you and your friends to celebrate on Google. Starting today, you'll see a reminder on Google.com when someone in your circles has a birthday! From there it's easy to share a fun message, photo, or video with the birthday gal or guy.

When it's your special day, we only remind the people you've chosen to share your birthday with. Update your Google+ birthday preferences to make sure you're sharing with the right people: https://plus.google.com/up/birthday.

At first you'll only see birthday reminders if you're searching in English on Google.com. We'll be rolling this feature out gradually over the next few days. Here's to all the happy birthdays to come!

The new feature emerges as Google.com becomes a little less sacred to the Web giant. Google adorned its Google.com page today TEXTHEREwith an advertisement for the Nexus 7 tablet, a rare instance in which Google used its home page to actively promote one of its own products.