Google Brings the Social to Search
For most of us, Google is now synonymous with searching for information. What it is trying to become more known for though is the social side of the web, and with its still relatively new Google+ starting to be marketed up the wazoo, you had to think it was just a matter of time before Google found a way to incorporate Google+ into its main search feature. Well, here it is, and its being billed as “Search, plus Your World.”
On Tuesday, Google officially unveiled its plans for making Google+ a more focal part of its core search business. Essentially, through the main Google search function, you will not only receive the standard search results, but also personalized results based on your network on Google+. For example, if you search “Ancient Greece,” you will still get the Wikipedia background and various website dedicated to all those great myths, fables and gods, but you would also get photos that you or your friends took while visiting Athens that were shared on Google+. Check out Google’s video to see how their social search works.
I’m actually quite excited about the possibilities for making search more social. Like many, I rely quite a bit on my social media networks – mostly Twitter and Facebook – for interesting news items, quirky stories or useful tidbits. Unfortunately, once these items pass, they are often difficult to find again, especially if they were on a friend’s wall or just a tweet that you didn’t retweet. Of course, Google will be making content from only its Google+ product available to users of social search, so if you or your friends or people with public profiles – aren’t posting interesting content there, it’s pretty worthless. Could this be the nudge that people need to really start making Google+ one of their primary social networks? Maybe!
There are certainly people that will raise privacy complaints about this, but Google seems to have taken a fairly proactive approach to ensuring privacy on this one. It will definitely be interesting to see how other social networks respond, especially Facebook. I don’t imagine Google has plans to make Facebook posts show up in its search results!
Take a look at Google’s announcement for more details about their launch of a more social search, and let us know what you think. This really could be a huge change in the way we search!
