Search + your world = ruffled feathers…

Google is rolling out new search features. And this time it’s personal. If you’re logged into Google and search then you’ll start to see Google+ information being integrated into the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Here’s a nice video from that other social Google platform – YouTube:

What this boils down to…

This is what Google say:

With personal results, you’ll see relevant tips, photos, and posts from your friends right alongside results from the web […] You can even expand your world by discovering people related to your search.

What they want is a search engine that makes results more relevant, richer and more social by adding and using information about people you’re connected with.

Simply put, so far this translates as:

1. Google+ content in SERPs from folks in your circles (photos, posts, comments…)
2. Google+ profiles in SERPs related to that person (including in the autocomplete dropdown)
3. Related Google+ people and pages also appear to the right of search results.
4. Social share buttons – ‘like’ and share content, add people to circles… all from within the SERPs.

Sounds good right? Anything that makes search results more relevant and lets us see more interrelated data in one place has got to be good. No downside is there?

Twitter’s feathers get ruffled

Alex Macgillvray, Twitter’s general counsel and ex Google employee, tweet in response to Google’s announcement was less than friendly or subtle.

Now I’m no legal expert, but that’s not the usual cryptic and subtle speak you expect from a lawyer. Twitter’s problem is one which we might all encounter. In essence it’s how this new wealth of information is being integrated.

Google are desperate to push Google+ and take a slice of the social media pie off Facebook. So, with all this personalisation, the concern is that we’ll all have to wade through a load of Google+ content to get to anything else. Twitter say if news is breaking it’s breaking on their platform so don’t want it buried. For the rest of us, we like trimmings sure, but not if it means we don’t get to the meat.

More social, more personalised searching

Social search or personalised search, whatever you want to call it. this is the next big thing internet pundits have been predicting for a few years now. I say ‘predicting’ but when something’s so predictable, it’s closer to say ‘waiting’.

I don’t think anyone who thinks about such things didn’t ‘predict’ Google would integrate it’s social platform with it’s search engine. Some cynical folk might go further and say Google+ is simply designed to harvest valuable social data. Some might say Google will attempt to lock us into their platform and bombard us with all things Google-branded every time we search for anything.

After all, it works for Facebook and that’s who they’re trying to beat.