Google has made its Social Search experiment available to all users in beta format on its main search engine, enabling searchers to find content posted by their friends and acquaintances on the web.
The search engine first announced the feature in October last year and can now be used by those who are signed into their Google accounts.
It pulls content from friends' blogs and websites when users conduct a search and lists these alongside standard results from elsewhere on the web.
Google has additionally extended the Social Search concept to its image search service, meaning users can view relevant images from Flickr and other sites that their friends use when undertaking a search.
Two new links, My Social Circle and My Social Content, enable searchers to look at the connections and information that lie behind their search results.
In a blog post, Maureen Heymans and Terran Melconian of Google say that they are leaving the feature in beta for now as they intend to develop it further.
"We think there's tremendous potential for social information to improve search and we're just beginning to scratch the surface," they add.
The launch comes after Google and Bing added real-time results from Twitter to their search listings.
Facebook also added a similar search facility to its website last year.
