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Move is latest in location-based features for the search giant.

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Facebook joins Twitter and MySpace in Google’s Social Update Search.

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Last year, Google unveiled its Social Search and launched into Labs. The idea is that you would see blog posts and other content from your social network in your search results.

Now, the feature is being rolled out to everyone as a new beta feature of Google.com. As part of the release, Google has also integrated social search into their Image search. You’ll see pictures from photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Picasa.

The images will appear under their own special heading. You’ll also notice links to “My social circle” and “My social content.” Click on either of these links to discover your social network as Google defines it.

To truly experience social search, you’ll want to create a Google profile, where you can list your various social networks. This helps Google find your network and connect them to you in their new social efforts.

For a visual tour of Google’s new social search effort, check out this vid:

Google is making it easier to identify where some sites exist geographically. Normally, you can tell this information from the URL, such as .ca for Canada or .br for Brazil.

But when it comes to TLDs such as .com and .net, it’s not always clear. Google is adding country-specific information to the green URL line in the search results. Here’s an example per the Google Webmaster Central blog:

You can tell Google what country your web site is associated with. Log on to your Webmaster Tools account. Then go to Site configuration > Settings > Geographic Target.

In Google’s search results, they’ve always included the URL to the link associated with a given result. The URL is set in green text at the bottom of the result. Now, they’re replacing some of those URLs with site hierarchies.

Let’s say you’re searching for cat toys. Previously you may have seen:

http://www.domain.com/example/cattoys

Now you may see:

Domain.com > Example > Cat Toys

Here’s an example as seen at the Official Google Blog:

The root domain will always show. If the site’s hierarchy is deep, you may see an elipses to represent skipped categories:

Domain.com > …..>Example > Cat Toys

As with all major changes at Google, this is a rolling update. So if you don’t see it, sit tight. It’s rolling out globally over the next few days.

Last April, Google launched the integration of public data into its main search results. Now, they’re adding even more public data – this time from the World Bank.

You can search 17 World Bank data indicators:

• CO2 emissions per capita
• Electricity consumption per capita
• Energy use per capita
• Exports as percentage of GDP
• Fertility rate
• GDP deflator change
• GDP growth rate
• GNI per capita in PPP dollars
• Gross Domestic Product
• Gross National Income in PPP dollars
• Imports as percentage of GDP
• Internet users as percentage of population
• Life expectancy
• Military expenditure as percentage of GDP
• Mortality rate, under 5
• Population
• Population growth rate

Here’s a screenshot for the results of searching “gdp growth rate zimbabwe”

Google is offering additional protection for its “strict” SafeSearch options. When you receive the update, you’ll be required to give your password to select the strict option or to change it back to moderate or off.

When the strict SafeSearch is selected, bright bubbles with the primary colors of Google’s famous bubble will be present in the top right corner of the page.

This means parents can keep an eye on their kids’ web browsing without breathing down their necks.

For more info, check out this video Google put together:

Earlier today, news broke that Google’s new index would launch soon. The news was simultaneously exciting and disconcerting since most SEOs and search marketers are in full-fledged holiday mode, and boy, would this disrupt things.

But Google spam ninja Matt Cutts took to his personal blog to assure that most people won’t get the update until after the holidays. You can breathe that sigh of relief now.

Caffeine will still be rolled out to one data center, which Cutts said will affect a small percentage of searchers.

In August, Google released a developer preview of their new index, dubbed Google Caffeine. Changes in the index appeared to be largely a “Your Mileage May Vary” situation, with some noticing hardly any changes to their rankings while others noticed bigger changes.

Now, Google has closed the preview sandbox and is prepping the new index for a larger release. It will initially roll out to one data center.

I would imagine that for many, this isn’t the greatest time to be experiencing changes in Google’s index. The holidays are coming and the economy has been in a rough place for quite a while now. Changing up rankings in the biggest search engine could affect holiday revenues and that’s a scary thing. Although, for others it will probably be a positive change as well.