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When Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) launched its Google+ social network June 28, the search engine promised it would ensure the social network would integrate with the company’s other Web services.
Early Google+ users called strongly for integration of + with Gmail, the popular Webmail application, and the company promised it is working on this. However, other Google+ integrations have beaten the Gmail wedding to the punch.
Users signed into their Google accounts will see Google+ posts shared publicly they’re connected to on the Google+ network. This is basically an extension of Google’s Social Search feature, which lets users signed in see blog posts, reviews and other content from searchers’ contacts in search results.
Google+ Product Manager Sagar Kamdar explained:
“Let’s say I’m logged into my Google Account, and I search on Google for “uncle zhou queens.” I’ve heard a lot of great things about this restaurant, and we’re visiting NYC soon, so we want to figure out all the best eats in town. I also happen to have Andrew Hyatt in one of my Google+ circles. Oh, and it turns out he just made a public post on his Google+ account about Uncle Zhou in Queens.”
Kamdar showed how Hyatt’s post may appear on his results page for the query “uncle zhou queens.”
Users will need to be Google+ members logged into their Google accounts to enjoy the new social search integration.
In another, more quiet Google+ integration, users of the Google Books book service can both share information about books they are reading with their Google+ Circles, and +1 them, the button that serves as the equivalent of Facebook’s Like button.
A reader who wants to share a book they are reading with their Google+ contacts can click the Google+ Share box on the About the Book page or in a Google Books preview, post a note, then pick which circles with whom they want to share about the work and click the share button.
This message, along with a snapshot of the book cover, description and title linking back to the Google Books About the Book page, will surface in the poster’s Google+ stream.
Or, users may choose to just paste the About the Book or Google Books preview URL into their share box on Google+. Any title that users +1 will appear in their profile on the +1 tab.
Google’s search and Google Books search integration with Google+ are two minor examples of how the search engine is weaving Google+ into the fabric of its users’ overall Google experience.
The company will obviously take more strenuous privacy steps for major integrations of + with Gmail, Google Apps, YouTube and other Web services.