Google has put its experimental Social Search feature into beta, claiming that it will help find results that are more relevant and personal to the user.

New features include a 'My social circle' button that displays the user's online contacts, as well as how they are connected, such as via blogs or personal web pages.

Social Search also works with Google Images, offering results pulled from a contact's Picasa albums, for example. These are presented under the 'Results from your social circle' banner.

Users will have to create their own Google profile to run Social Search, and add their own contacts and bookmarks. The new features will roll out for English users over the coming days.

"We think there's tremendous potential for social information to improve search, and we're just beginning to scratch the surface. We're leaving a 'beta' label on social results because we know there's a lot more we can do," wrote Maureen Heymans, technical lead for Social Search, and Terran Melconian, technical lead for Social Image Search, in a blog post.

"If you want to get the most out of Social Search right away, get started by creating a Google profile, where you can add links to your other public online social services."

source: www.v3.co.uk