Public Google+ posts now available in social search

In what could be an answer to the partnership of Facebook and Microsoft's search engine Bing, Google has included public posts of its upcoming social network Google+ in its search results. Google product manager Sagar Kamdar said a person signed into his or her Google account will see such posts from Google+ members he or she is connected to. "We're including public Google+ posts as well. So if you’re signed into your Google Account, your search results may start including posts shared publicly by people you’re connected to on Google+," Kamdar said in a blog post (http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2011/08/latest-update-to-google-social-search.html). He suggested this may be useful for people who search on Google for a particular restaurant, and can get reviews from people in their Google+ circles who made a public post about it. But he said this updated feature will be available only if one is on Google+ and is logged in to his or her Google account. "In addition, only public posts on Google+ are visible in search results. Private posts on Google+ aren’t," he added. A separate story on tech site CNET said that this is "something of a catch-up move for the company that has long pioneered searching the Web." It noted that in, May, Microsoft's Bing rolled out a similar feature that elevates results that have received a "like" from a friend on Facebook. Similarly, Bing's implementation requires users to be logged in to Facebook. "For both Google and Microsoft, the idea is to mimic the real world, where people often rely on friends for advice before making decisions about products, restaurants, hotels, and more. And unlike random reviews from unknown and untrusted sources left on sites such as OpenTable, Google+ and Facebook provide more relevant feedback. Google, of course, has a huge advantage over Microsoft with its continuing domination of search," it added. But CNET added that while Google+ has gained some traction since launching as a "project" on June 28, it still has only about 25 million users - paltry compared with Facebook's 750 million. — TJD, GMA News