Google’s had a social element to its search since 2009, but today the company’s seriously beefing up its social results. Searching for a news story? You’ll see which friends have tweeted which posts. Planning a holiday? Google will show you what your friends have blogged about your destination, and what relevant pictures they’ve uploaded to their Flickr accounts.
The service only comes into play if you’re logged into your Google account. All of which sounds great, until you notice who’s not along for the ride: Facebook. Because for as long as the current king of the (very lucrative) social network hill has Bing wrapped around its finger, Google’s social search will be seriously stunted. [Google Blog]