Google is rolling out its new Google Social Search and all users should start seeing results from their social circle in the next few days according to Google post. The search engine has been an experiment in Google Labs since last October. The search engine helps you find more relevant results from your social circle.
A lot of people write about New York, so if I do a search for [new york] on Google, my best friend’s New York blog probably isn’t going to show up on the first page of my results. Probably what I’ll find are some well-known and official sites. We’ve taken steps to improve the relevance of our search results with personalization, but today’s launch takes that one step further. With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results. When I do a simple query for [new york], Google Social Search includes my friend’s blog on the results page under the heading “Results from people in your social circle for New York.” I can also filter my results to see only content from my social circle by clicking “Show options” on the results page and clicking “Social.”
By using your public Google profile, Google builds your social circle from people you follow on Twitter or Friendfeed. If you have a Gmail account, Google will use your contacts and chat buddies. Google will also use your Google Reader and include sites you subscribe to in your search results.
You can check out your social circle here.
What is included in Social Search:
- Websites, blogs, public profiles, and other content linked from your friends’ Google profiles
- Web content, such as status updates, tweets, and reviews, from social services that your friends have listed in their Google profiles
- Images posted publicly from your social circle on Picasa Web and from websites linked from their Google profiles
- Relevant articles from your Google Reader subscriptions
The new features are rolling out now on Google.com in English for all signed-in users. If your Google profile is updated, you should start seeing them in your search results in the next few days.
Tariq Ali is an avid follower of the search engine and Internet marketing industry for the past 10 years. When he is not working or playing with tech gadgets, you will find him swimming, biking or running.
Read other articles by Tariq Ali
Tags: Google, google labs, Google Social Search, Social Search
This will only make spammers add more friends to they friend list, just to make more visitors trough they searches. I don’t think this is some very good idea. Actually my social circle is blank.