Google recently signed deals with Facebook and MySpace to include user’s status updates in search indexes.  Google has had a similar deal with Twitter, and now adds two more companies to the list.

User’s searching for a topic on Google will now have publicly-available status updates from social media sites included in their search index results.  The main purpose behind including these updates in search results is to keep information relevant and timely.  Twitter results have been providing Google users with up-to-date information on fast-paced stories or news that users are looking for, and it’s expected that Facebook and Myspace results will do the same.

With Facebook and MySpace joining in on the deal, users can expect to find real-time updates on developing topics as they search, instead of the ancient Wikipedia entries or old news relating to the topic.  Google is known for its speed in returning search results, with the amount of time to process the request as an important result in the search index.  Now, Google’s results will also be known for their speed in providing updates on developing topics.  With real-time search results from social media networks, search results will be more timely and relevant.

The results are expected to be integrated over the next several days, but may come with some kinks.  The accuracy of these updates will probably still have to be worked out, and users of social media may be prompted to make their status updates private, which would ensure they could not be indexed in search engines.  Keep an eye out for these kinds of updates on your Google search results to see how relevant they are – it should be interesting to watch.