Social Search Now Live To Everyone On Google
In October last year Google’s Marissa Mayer announced that Social Search graduated from Google Labs. Until last week, however, it was an opt in feature. But now anyone who searches on www.google.com (US) will be able to see Social Search results.
For the uninformed, Social Search means that any person searching the web will also be able to see results from friends/connections on their network. Amidst privacy concerns, Google was quick to point out that it only displays information that is already publicly available.
If you were to search for ‘India’ you would see a new section in your search results from your social circle.
There are also links to see your Social Circle(the contacts whose social data will appear in your results) and Social Content(the social data that you are sharing with others).
In order to see Social Results, apart from searching on the Google US page, it also necessary that you are signed into your Google Account. If you still don’t any Social Results it is probably because you have no Social Data available to you from your Contacts.
Contacts can include people on your GTalk chat list, Friends family and coworkers on Google Contacts, contacts from sites like Twitter and Friendfeed – provided these have been added to your Google Profile. To see your Social Contacts go here.
Content you see may typically include Websites and Blogs linked via your friends, Status updates, Images from your social circle, subscriptions from your Google Reader.
For a better understanding of Social Search check video below:
Richness of the content that Social Search throws up depends entirely on what your network is like. Given the codependent nature of people, a push in the right direction from Google will ensure this feature will go a long way in improving the search experience they provide.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!
I wonder if this feature will be very useful or not. But, it sounds interesting, for sure.
i have tried it and but i didn’t find it useful.