Later on, the verification badges will be available to a bigger scope of users who aren't famous or broadly popular on the site, Google official Wen-Ai Yu [cq] said in a Google+ .

For now the main goal is to inform users which is the official profile of a singer, actor, politician, public figure or popular Google+ account holder they may want to add to their Google+ Circles to follow their public posts.

"When you visit the profile of a celebrity or public figure, you’ll see a verification badge next to their profile name. This will help you easily determine which profiles are owned by real, verified people," she wrote.

Verified Google+ accounts will feature a gray checkmark inside a lighter-gray circle next to the person's profile name. It's not clear from Yu's post how many "followers" a Google+ user needs to have to qualify as someone whose account merits having a verification badge.

Other social media sites feature verified accounts, including Twitter, which is used by many public figures to communicate with their fans.