Completing a process that was first hinted at back in October, Google is now officially incorporating Google+ information into its search results. While the change is certainly a good one for users interested in sharing everything about their life, for those tasked with keeping systems secure it may simply prove to be another avenue for hackers and identity thieves.
Google's changes to the basic Google search page began appearing on Tuesday, although it will take a few days for everyone to see the changes. The feature is called Search Plus Your World and simply incorporates things people have shared with you in Google+ into the results of your Google web searches. According to this Search Engine Land article, search results will now include web listing, boosted listing because of your personal behavior, boosted listings because of social shares, public Google+ posts, and private Google+ posts shared with you. The modified search results will only appear for those logged in to their Google account.
The Google+ posts are the newest additions, and if they work correctly, they should be able to give people a much more customized selection of things to choose from when they search the Web. However, the public access to large amounts of old social networking information could lead to some security issues and concerns.
Security and Search
Google+ was designed with the separation of public and private personae in mind, allowing you to only share information with a designated set of people. This separation will continue in the new search feature, as you will only be able to see Google+ information that was already available to you. However, the issue with social networking is that people don't always realize just how many people can see their posts. The security problems with the new Google search are similar to those that arose with the Facebook Timeline feature, as detailed in this Infoboom article. Now, older, forgotten posts could come back as results on your connection's searches, and someone could easily publicly re-share your private comments, which could now appear on anyone's search results.
Apart from general privacy concerns, people in charge of sensitive systems and data may face additional problems. The further integration of social and search will make it that much easier for targeted hacking attempts, called "spear phishing," that are designed to gather specific information about highly-placed individuals in order to access a system. While the new Google search feature won't make any new information public, it will make finding that information almost stupidly easy.
As this Huffington Post article points out, Google is directly threatened by Facebook and Twitter, as the search giant doesn't have access to the massive amount of information being shared on these networks. If this new feature winds up driving traffic to Google+, the possibility exists that other social networking sites will allow Google to see and aggregate their information, further increasing the amount of information that becomes public.
The problem isn't that the data isn't out there and available, but that turning an accurate search engine loose on social networking streams can make it devastatingly simple to find a tremendous amount of important information. Social networking is supposed to be a kind of virtual water-cooler or backyard fence where you can share stories ranging from the ridiculous to the profound. However, if every conversation is recorded and made searchable, it could have a serious impact on what people will feel comfortable sharing and may even result in companies further locking down their employees' use of social networking, even when they are not at work.