( CNN ) -- Google search is about to get way more personal . In a change that 's been called the `` most radical transformation ever '' to Google 's search engine , the Mountain View , California , company on Tuesday announced an update called `` Search , plus Your World , '' which causes Google 's robots to incorporate data from its social network as well as the public Internet when delivering search results to people . `` Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of Web pages , images , videos , news and much more , '' Google said in a blog post on Tuesday morning . `` But clearly , that is n't enough . You should also be able to find your own stuff on the Web , the people you know and things they 've shared with you , as well as the people you do n't know but might want to ... all from one search box . '' The company added : `` Search is simply better with your world in it . '' On the prominent blog Search Engine Land , Danny Sullivan writes that the updates fundamentally change the way Google 's search engine functions , calling it the `` most radical '' change ever . `` The new system will perhaps make life much easier for some people , allowing them to find both privately shared content from friends and family plus material from across the Web through a single search , rather than having to search twice using two different systems , '' he writes . `` However , Search Plus Your World may cause some privacy worries , as private content may appear as if it is exposed publicly ( it is not ) . It might also cause concern by making private content more visible to friends and family than those sharing may have initially intended . '' On the blog Tech Crunch , Jason Kincaid gives an example search to help explain the changes . Say you were to Google `` Harry Potter , '' he writes . `` For most people , this would probably pull up links to the books , the films , and a variety of fan sites . For this intrepid reporter , though , the results would also include my Picasa album shot at a Harry Potter premiere a few years back ( and labeled as such ) . These images would pop up both in the main search results page , and in Google Images results . Likewise , any blog posts my friends had shared on Google+ about the boy wizard would show up in my results , too . '' It 's worth noting that Google users who do n't like these new personal results can turn them off . A toggle switch that controls personal results should appear in the upper right corner of a search results page , the company says . Click `` no personal results '' to avoid seeing the social content . The social search results started rolling out on Tuesday but may not be visible to all users . Google says the social search applies , for now , only to people who are signed in to Google.com and are searching in English . The update causes Google to surface material that is specifically related to the person who is searching . So my search results wo n't be the same as yours , if I 'm signed in to Google . Things my friends have posted on Google+ and Picasa will show up in the results as well , as long as they have entered caption info about their photos . Google+ profile and topic pages also will get better play in search results after the change . Miguel Helft , a senior writer at Fortune , which is a CNN.com partner website , says the change has the bonus effect for Google of giving lots and lots of exposure to its social network , Google+ , which is aimed to be a direct competitor to Facebook . `` The change will expose Google+ profiles , as well as posts and photographs uploaded to the network , to hundreds of millions of search users whether or not they have Google+ accounts . In many cases , the changes will push content from other sites , including Facebook , further down on the search results pages , '' he writes on Fortune.com . Helft adds that social search has long been a `` holy grail '' in tech . `` Facebook has been working with Microsoft to allow that company 's search engine , Bing , to surface more personalized content , '' he writes . `` And the Facebook platform has allowed countless services , like Yelp , Pandora and Spotify , to become more personal by showing users content that is relevant to their Facebook friends . '' But the change is also likely to upset competitors who complain that Google gives preferential treatment to content from its own products -- from Google+ to YouTube , he writes .
Google adds social , personal content to its search engine . Change is called the ` ` most radical ever '' by a prominent search - engine blogger . The change includes more content and features from Google+ . Google is expected to promote its social network and compete with Facebook .