Google incorporates Google+ social data into search results

Google has announced the first major integration of data from its Google+ social service with other products in its portfolio with "Search plus Your World", which is designed to return personal information alongside web results in search.

The move is the latest by Google in its on-going attempt to peg Facebook back in the social market. It will be hoping that by including personal information in search results the use of its Google+ service will continue to grow.

Google fellow Amit Singhal wrote in a blog post that the update was designed to transform Google "into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships" in a bid to improve its service.

"You should 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," he said.

The update is based around three new features. Personal Results uses information posted by contacts on Google+ to return results, while Profile in Search searches for contacts on Google+ directly, Singhal explained.

"Now, typing just the first few letters of your friend's name brings up a personalised profile prediction in autocomplete," he said.

"Selecting a predicted profile takes you to a results page for your friend, which includes information from their Google+ profile and relevant web results that may be related to them."

The third feature is called People and Pages and works by returning results on relevant contacts and pages on the Google+ site that may be of interest.

The firm produced a video of the new system in action to give a demonstration of how it works, which is also embedded below.

Google also touted the security credentials of the update, explaining that all Search plus Your World results have SSL encryption as standard and that users were in complete control of the new feature.

"Personal results are clearly marked as Public, Limited or Only you. Additionally, people in your results are clearly marked with the Google+ circle they are in, or as suggested connections," Singhal said.

"We're also introducing a prominent new toggle on the upper right of the results page where you can see what your search results look like without personal content. With a single click, you can see an unpersonalised view of search results."

Google+ has seen strong growth since it was unveiled in June 2011 but is far behind Facebook, which has some 750 million users and could use its wealth of data on web users to launch a rival to Google in the search market.