Public Google+ Posts: the Latest Improvement to Google Social Search

Earlier this year Google announced improvements to its social search function, which included mixing social search results in with your other results rather than just showing them at the bottom, and adding notes when a link appears in your search results that one of your connections has shared on sites such as Twitter.

Now Google has announced the latest improvement to its social search, which centres on its own social service, Google+ circles.  It will now be possible to see annotations underneath a search result when one of your connections in Google+ circles shares a link.  However, in order to view these notes you must be both signed up to Google's new social service and signed in.  In addition, you will only be able to view public posts on Google+, not private ones.

Imagine you are searching for information on a new restaurant you are thinking of visiting; one of your Google+ connections has been to this restaurant and has recently posted a comment about it with a link to a review on the New York Times website.  The effect this has on the search results you see is that this article features higher up the list than it might have done with a note to say that your friend has shared this on Google+.  

SEO specialists should consider how they can use this to their advantage.  It seems that having a presence on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Google+ could potentially have a positive effect on your websites position in the SERP's.  However, for this to have any benefit, you must first be regularly posting to a large number of engaged followers who are likely to then share your posts and links.