Google has been looking at trying to integrate information from social media websites into its search engine for some time, but this week the search engine has taken the next step, announcing that its social search feature has finally gone into beta accessible to users.
The idea behind social search is to be integrating blogs, photos and tweets into normal search content when searching for keyterms. The general idea is that people will find results that are from friends or their own trusted online sources will be more relevant to them personally than say, Wikipedia.
The Official Google blog explains the concept in more detail:
“If one of my friends has written a blog where he talks about a great baby shop he found in Mountain View, this might appear in my social results.
I could probably find other reviews, but my friend’s blog is more relevant because I know and trust the author.
Social search results will be differentiated from public web searches with a heading of ‘results from your social circle”
The search is certainly a new direction from Google considering the amount of user input that is needed to make it work. Users of social search are required to register for a Google Profile and add their own details and links to the search engine. We imagine people that are already worried about Google’s involvement with privacy will likely be steering well clear of the service.
Google have admitted that the search still requires much improvement which is why the feature is in beta and will probably remain so for quite some time. Still, it does show an area where Google are doing something different to Bing and provides yet another avenue to filter and adjust our search results based on our preferences.
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