Google to Expand Social Search
Google boosted its social search efforts on Thursday by disclosing plans to make it available to users outside the U.S. in 19 languages in the coming week.
In 2009 Google first introduced Social Search on google.com as an experimental feature designed to help users find more relevant information from their friend. Today, the company is bringing Social Search to more users around the globe.
Google's move follows on the news of increased integration between Facebook and Microsoft's Bing search engine earlier this week.
Just like on google.com, social search results in other languages and on other domains are mixed throughout the Google results page based on their relevance.
Social Search can help users find pages your friends have created, and it can also help them find links their contacts have shared on Twitter and other sites. "If someone you're connected to has publicly shared a link, we may show that link in your results with a clear annotation," Google explained in a blog post.
"So, if you're looking for information about modern cooking and your colleague Adam shared a link about Modernist Cuisine, you?ll see an annotation and picture of Adam under the result. That way when you see Adam in the office, you'll know he might be a good person to ask about his favorite modern cooking techniques," the company added.
Social search results are only visible to users and only appear when they choose to log in to their Google Account. If they're signed in, Google makes a best guess about whose public content they may want to see in theri results, including people from their Google chat buddy list, their Google Contacts, the people they're following in Google Reader and Buzz, and the networks they' ve linked from their Google profile or Google Account. For public networks like Twitter, Google finds users' friends and sees who they?re publicly connected to as well.
Social Search is rolling out globally in 19 languages and should be available in the coming week, with more languages on the way.
Google's move follows on the news of increased integration between Facebook and Microsoft's Bing search engine earlier this week.
Just like on google.com, social search results in other languages and on other domains are mixed throughout the Google results page based on their relevance.
Social Search can help users find pages your friends have created, and it can also help them find links their contacts have shared on Twitter and other sites. "If someone you're connected to has publicly shared a link, we may show that link in your results with a clear annotation," Google explained in a blog post.
"So, if you're looking for information about modern cooking and your colleague Adam shared a link about Modernist Cuisine, you?ll see an annotation and picture of Adam under the result. That way when you see Adam in the office, you'll know he might be a good person to ask about his favorite modern cooking techniques," the company added.
Social search results are only visible to users and only appear when they choose to log in to their Google Account. If they're signed in, Google makes a best guess about whose public content they may want to see in theri results, including people from their Google chat buddy list, their Google Contacts, the people they're following in Google Reader and Buzz, and the networks they' ve linked from their Google profile or Google Account. For public networks like Twitter, Google finds users' friends and sees who they?re publicly connected to as well.
Social Search is rolling out globally in 19 languages and should be available in the coming week, with more languages on the way.