Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
eWEEK.com
Search
eWEEK.com
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cloud
    • Networking

    Google+ Social Network Used to Make Search Personal

    By
    CLINT BOULTON
    -
    January 10, 2012
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) finally managed to fashion a credible social search solution, using its Google+ network to include Picasa photos, posts and other personalized content in users’ search results.

      Called “Search, plus your world,” the new feature is a way to combat the “faceless Web” problem of highly impersonal search results Google, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and the rest of the search vendors have provided for the last decade and a half.

      The approach is the latest of many unsuccessful attempts by bit players–and even Google itself–to make search social, and to personalize it in a meaningful way.

      “Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of Web pages, images, videos, news and much more,” Google Fellow Amit Singhal wrote in a blog post. “But clearly, that isn’t enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the Web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box.”

      Over the next few days, searchers who are members of Google+ and are signed into their Google account will see Google+ photos and posts they’ve created, as well as those their Google+ followers have shared expressly with them on search results pages.

      Also, users will now be able to search people they follow in Google+, or at least would like to follow in Google+, both in the search autocomplete function of the search box and directly in search results.

      For example, users can type just a few letters of their friend’s name to recall personalized profile choices in the autocomplete function, which leverages Google Instant. Clicking on a name will whisk the searcher away to a results page for their friend.

      Searchers may also find profile autocomplete predictions for various prominent people from Google+, including “high-quality authors.” Users who aren’t already following these people will see an option to add them to their Google+ Circles.

      Finally, users may search and find Google people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest.

      Googles Menzel Provides Practical Research for Personal Search

      During a pre-briefing with eWEEK, Jack Menzel, product management director for search at Google, used the example of vacation planning.

      Those who want to travel to, say, Rome, can simply search the Web. But Menzel, who recently went to Rome, wanted to learn about the Italian city through the lens of friends who had been there and experience the city first hand.

      Menzel searched for Rome using the new personal results feature and found Google+ posts written about Rome, as well as several photos and links to content about the city. A search of Rome in Google Image Search retrieved the same kind of personalized results for him, solely in pictures his friends took of the city.

      Whenever a company mixes social with Web search, security and privacy are natural concerns. Recall the privacy concerns Facebook triggered with its new user interface experiences in the past, including with the most recent Timeline change.

      Menzel told eWEEK Google has applied the SSL encryption it recently applied to Google Search to its results pages for the new personal results. Google has also made sure to mark personal results with specific designations used on Google+, including brandings for Public, Limited or Only you.

      There is also a new toggle switch in the upper right-hand of search results pages where users can see what results look like without personal content. This toggle button works for each individual search session, but users can also make this the default in your Search Settings.

      “Search, plus your world” represents a real instantiation of the Social Search service the company has worked at for the last few years. That approach never really took off because Google didn’t have a network to leverage. With more than 60 million users on Google+, users should experience more value in the new social search approach.

      This could also have the effect of luring new users to Google+, which would be a huge win for the company at a time when Facebook has more than 800 million users and counting.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      EWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      ZEUS KERRAVALA - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      WAYNE RASH - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Info

      © 2020 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×