Google’s Search Results Get More Social; Twitter As The New Facebook “Like”

Your friends’ activity on Twitter, Flickr and elsewhere — but for now, not Facebook — will soon be a lot more visible in Google’s search results, including having an impact on how pages rank.

Google has announced an expansion of its Google Social Search results that’s beginning to roll out today on Google.com. Here’s a look at what’s new: 1) Social Search results may appear anywhere in the search results, 2) In some cases, Google will simply be annotating results with a social search indicator, 3) A new Google Account setting allows you to add social networking accounts to your Google Profile while keeping the connections private, and 4) For whatever reason, Google’s search results continue to lack Facebook Like, giving Bing an advantage on that front — though not one that’s proven to attract new searchers to Bing in any great numbers.