Google Tests Broader Bookmarking Service Called Stars

Google lets people click a star icon to flag interest in particular Gmail messages, Chrome bookmarks, Android address book contacts, and Google Apps documents. Now it looks like the company is testing a service called Stars that could centralize the idea. Google+ user and Google watcher Florian Kiersch has spotted graphics, code snippets, and other tidbits about Google Stars since April. On Monday, he posted a Google Stars video showing how some of the service could work, based on access to Google's "dogfooding" test framework.

The effort appears to be aimed at refreshing the idea of browser bookmarks -- once a central part of using the Web, but one that's been partly replaced by fast, effective Internet searching and by more sophisticated address management within browsers. But it could extend well beyond just Web pages, too, to personalize and organize other types of data people store through Google and Android.