Google gets more personal

Google wove content from its social network and Picasa photo-sharing service into its search formula to serve up personalised results to online queries.

We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information (news) will be much harder for everyone

“Search plus your world” was billed as a major change to the leading internet search engine.

“There is a huge amount of content on the Web today but, at a certain point this content is nameless and faceless,” Google’s Ben Gomes said.

“The most relevant content is from people you know, so we are introducing your personal world to search.”

People signed into Google accounts will be able to have the search engine include in results content approved for sharing by them or friends at Google+ or Picasa.

“I’ve been trying it out and it really changes the nature of search for me,” Mr Gomes said. “Now when I search for Bangalore I not only see information about the city but I see pictures of the house where I grew up.”

A cursor hovering over an image will reveal where the picture was shared online and by whom, according to Mr Gomes.

“We want to show you your personal data and data from friends,” Mr Gomes said.

Google’s social network lets users share comments, pictures, videos or other online content based on which friends, family, co-workers or acquaintances fall into.

The company is also enhancing searches for information about people by factoring in Google+ posts.

And Google will show which celebrities or other prominent people are commenting at the social network about topics of searches.

Personal data woven into results is protected with encryption and other security on par with that used to safeguard Google’s e-mail service, according to Mr Gomes.

“We’ve gone above and beyond on control because we know people are sensitive with personal data,” he said.

Google plans to weave its social network into an array of its properties and services as it builds an community in a market dominated by Facebook.

Globally popular microblogging service Twitter was quick to blast the changes to Google’s search engine, arguing that real-time tweets with dramatic ramifications will sink deeper on results pages.

“As we’ve seen time and again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results,” the San Francisco-based start-up said.

“We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone,” Twitter continued.

“We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organisations and Twitter users.”

Twitter messages are public and are blended into online search results.