Ahhh the HIPPO strikes again.
The concept seems to originate from Netscape's CEO and the acronym exists since 2006, according HiPPO FAQ: http://bitly.com/HIPPOExplained
And where the link goes to, obviously. No idea if this counts toward the Bitly link open rate.
1) don’t need to be logged in for the + to work
2) I’ve not seen it increment the clicks by visiting the + stats page, but can’t speak authoritatively on that.
High Importance Person Pushing Own (desires??)?
It is usually used when a company has no actual data to work on and therefore goes with the "obvious" as defined by "the boss" (Hippo).
Not that it is necessarily true. There could be lots of data that some people are not aware of and that only senior people are privy to, but if that is not shared with the team developing the software then that is in itself not a great sign.