Social search has been a particular focus for Google over the past year, with the search giant leveraging signals from several social sources - ranging from Twitter to Flickr - to best serve relevant results to consumers.

Social search has been a particular focus for Google over the past year, with the search giant leveraging signals from several social sources – ranging from Twitter to Flickr – to best serve relevant results to consumers. Now, Google is bringing the public social data from its own network, Google+, to its SERPs.

Google announced last week that the search engine will incorporate Google+ public posts into search results, adding yet another social element to search. If a friend or family member in one of a searcher's Google+ Circles has written or shared a public post about a business or location, then the related info will appear on relevant searches.

“Remember, to experience this updated feature, you'll need to be on Google+ and also make sure that you're logged into your Google Account when you search. In addition, only public posts on Google+ are visible in search results. Private posts on Google+ aren't,” Sagar Kamdar, product manager at Google, wrote on the company's blog. The update is expected to be implemented over the next week.

For marketers, the new social signal adds another layer to the value of Google+ as a social content marketing channel. With Google+ business pages on the horizon, marketers might also be able to share branded content with their businesses' Circles soon. Brands hoping to catch content advocates on the channel should note that Google+ currently has an older, affluent core audience compared to other social sites. Brafton recently reported that middle-aged parents are the prolific Google+ users.