On Google's main page, one of the few places on the Internet where a dearth of content is beneficial, it's easy to notice when a single word changes, especially when it's one as hot as "privacy."

Where it once said "©2008 Google" at the bottom of the page, it now says "©2008 - Privacy." The change was announced on Thursday before the Independence day holiday as a word-for-word identical passage in blogs by Marissa Mayer Search Products and User Experience Vice President and Pablo Chavez, Senior Policy Council.

The change appears to have been motivated by recent reports and subsequent advocacy concerns of Google's adherence to the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003, which requires commercial Web sites that collect user data to conspicuously post their privacy policy on their first "significant" page.

On June 3, following a New York Times report on the subject by Saul Hansell, several privacy groups contacted Google, demanding the privacy policy be shown as per the California law.

The change also occurred conspicuously closely to today's Senate Commerce Committee hearings regarding "Privacy Implications of Online Advertising."

On the "privacy center" page, it provides links to all the privacy sub-policies, including YouTube, iGoogle, Orkut, Goog-411, as well as AdSense, AdWords, and Google Analytics.