Google Social Search

Taken from:

http://www.cio.com/article/697954/4_Google_Social_Search_Tips_for_Control_and_Privacy?source=CIONLE_nlt_insider_2012-01-13&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cio%2Ffeed%2Fdrilldowntopic%2F3154+%28CIO.com+-+IT+Organization%29

Google recently (Tuesday January 10, 2012) announced some 'enhancements' to the Google search that incorporates social networking sites (most specifically Google accounts - like Google Plus; Google Photos; etc.

There are three new features:

-Personal Results. This will feature information from your Google+ photos and posts

-Profiles in Search. Which displays people you know or (according to Google) might be interesting to you.

-People and Pages. This feature (supposedly) will help you find people's profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with a few clicks.

So ... a Google search now includes more social networking (depending on the search). So, if you search for "The Milky Way" (galaxy), and your friend Jane Doe has pictures of the Milky Way on her Google Photos site, that may come up in the results. (Note, the results must be public).

As we well know, Google "knows" a lot about me (from my searches over the years, my gmail account, my Google Plus account, etc.). It uses that information to customize ads that might be relevant to me (and thus gain revenue when I click on those ads). But ... I think it might be a little disconcerting when a 'regular' search now shows me information that my friends have posted in public places as well.