My good friend Dr. Thomas Ho made me aware of a development from Google this evening that I think will be pretty interesting if executed well. And let’s be honest, most of what Google does is done fairly well.
It appears that Google will be adding some social search functionality to their toolbox. Currently in development in the Google Labs, we’re told it should be coming publicly available soon.
The idea is that when you search, there will be results offered from those in your social networks as well. So, if you’re searching for images, you can bet that your friends images on flickr will come up in the results if they fit your search terms.
Looking for something on a hot topic floating around the web? If your friends are talking about it on twitter, then those tweets will show-up in the results as well.
The hooks into your social networks will come from those networks you’ve tied to your own Google Profile. I guess the downside of that, or upside depending on your viewpoint, is that you’ll now have to setup a Google Profile for yourself as well.
All in all a pretty powerful feature to have at your finger tips if you’ve built up a strong and connected social network of friends. I truly believe that taking advantage of the networks we’ve built with each other, trusted friendships and tight integration between our various online presences will become the key to the future of search.