Google has expanded its social search feature to include additional links that appear in the Buzz tab of users’ Google profiles. Users who use Google Buzz have the option to add "connected sites" and post content from these sites publicly on their Google profiles.

"For example, you can choose to connect your Twitter account and set your tweets to appear publicly in your Buzz stream and the Buzz tab of your profile," explains Google software engineer Mike Lopyrev.

"With our enhancements today, we’ll start following these public links in the Buzz tab to improve your social search results," says Lopyrev. That means if there’s a link to your Twitter account in your public Buzz stream, we’ll follow that link to add the people you follow on Twitter to your social circle. If you don’t use Buzz, you can still add links to YouTube, Picasa and other sites directly to your Google profile, and we’ll continue to follow those links as well.

All content that is surfaced via social search results comes from public sources, and if you have private connections, you are the only one that can see them, Google says.

You always have the ability to see what content you’re sharing and who you’re connected with by clicking "My Social Content" and "My Social Circle" next to social search results.