Have you stopped trusting the dazzling restaurant reviews you read online?

For you, Google has launched Hotpot, a social recommendation app that lets you share recommendations with friends of your choosing, based on Google Places' directory of 50 million locations around the world.

There are three ingredients in Hotpot, Google wrote in a blog post: Google Places data, places you recommend, and places your friends recommend.

Begin by rating all the restaurants, hotels, gyms, etc. you've been to through a Hotpot rating app. Then search for friends to add to your Hotpot network; those whose recommendations you care to see.

You can continue rating places on the go through your computer or mobile app, currently available on Android phones only.

Unlike Places, which integrates reviews from all around the Web and serves as more of a business listing than a personal recommendation, Hotpot's colorful interface, equipped with a smiley-face logo, is more personable and user-friendly.

"With Hotpot, we're making local search results for places on Google more personal, relevant and trustworthy," product manager Lior Ron said in a blog post.

There are already several recommendation engines that synch with Google Maps, such as Yelp and Citysearch, but this is Google's first self-branded recommendation service.