Google makes search results more social

Google is making its search results more social by including content that a consumer’s social media connections have created or shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

The effort builds on the social search feature that Google launched in 2009. However, before the social results—links to content created or shared by social network friends—appeared at the bottom of a results page. Now the results are mixed in with other results based on their relevance.

Below the social results Google will present annotations, highlighting who has shared the link, along with a small photo of that individual.

Important to add is that only people who are signed in to Google will see the social results. And only people who have selected to publicly share a link will appear.

Social search results could mean major change
The new moves can change the results consumers see greatly because a consumer’s social connections’ content can bolster particular products or brands’ rankings. For instance, if a consumer is searching for running shoes and his friend tweeted that he just got back from a run in his new Brooks shoes, that result might show up near the top of the results the searcher sees.

The search giant says the move is aimed at producing more relevant results. Google however also says it is introducing new privacy settings to give consumers control over whether they want to reveal connections between their Google profiles and social networks.

Source: Internet Retailer