The addition of the +1 button to the Android Market comes as Google has continued its struggles to keep malicious applications off of the market. Just this past week Google had to remove 25 different malicious applications from the market, less than three months after it had to pull more than 50 different applications from the store during the so-called "DroidDream" infection. firm Lookout Mobile Security estimated that between 30,000 and 120,000 users were infected by the latest round of malicious applications.

Ever since launching Android in 2007, Google has gone out of its way to making the mobile operating system the most accessible and app-friendly in the industry. One way it has tried to do this has been in taking an "anything goes" approach to screening applications for sale on its Android Market. Basically, Google itself doesn't screen any of the apps that go up on its store but rather relies on users to flag potentially malicious apps so they can be removed after they've already posted on the store. While this has led to a wide array of different apps being available on the market, it has also predictably created some serious security issues, such as the aforementioned DroidDream fiasco.

in Network World's Anti-malware section.