Google shows off social search service

by Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh, revolutionmagazine.com 27-Oct-09, 11:56

LONDON - Google has escalated the battle to provide relevant search results by launching its 'social search' service which includes relevant postings from social networks.

The feature, which launched today in Google Labs, aims to help users find information specific to their interests by including relevant posts on blogs and social networks.

For example if a user is planning a holiday trip to Paris and is searching for accommodation, results could include recommendations that a friend or colleague has written about.

Users with Google profiles are able to use the service, which taps into social connections made through Google service such as Gmail or sites linked to a user's Google profile including Twitter, FriendFeed, and LinkedIn.

"These social results will include relevant websites, blogs, status updates, and other publicly-available content from your online friends and contacts," Murali Viswanathan, product manager at Google said.

"All the information that appears as part of Google Social Search is published publicly on the web - you can find it without Social Search if you really want to. What we've done is surface that content together in one single place to make your results more relevant."

Last week both Google and Microsoft announced a deal with Twitter, which will see tweets appear in search results in real time, but Google said Social Search was developed independently of the Twitter deal.