Google has announced a big change to its web search, which it plans to launch very soon. Codenamed “Caffeine”, Google hopes the alterations will improve its search engine in every aspect, making it faster, provide more relevant results and index more sites. A test version has already been unveiled here; allowing webmasters to try it out and compare the differences with the current search, something Google has never done before.

Whilst the look and feel of it are very familiar, Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s anti-spam team, has given assurances that the updates are strictly “under the hood” and that the differences in the search results will be subtle, maybe even unnoticeable to some users. That said, with Google also claiming that this is a change to the search engine’s architecture and infrastructure, it’s a bit of a bigger deal than one of their regular algorithm changes.

They’re right about the subtlety. Many people who have tested it (ourselves included) have only noticed minor differences to the results. However what’s interesting to note is that social media websites such as FriendFeed, Facebook and Twitter have been given a big push, featuring much higher for results in the new version.

This could be a big sign for businesses to start considering social media in their future online marketing practices. Many companies have already taken advantage of this increasingly-popular online phenomenon, having created Facebook Pages or set up profiles on Twitter. Also known as mini-sites, they might not be as important as a company’s official website but social media marketing can certainly still be implemented to promote and raise awareness of a company.

After all, Search Engine Optimisation is not only about raising the profile of a business solely through its website, but rather through their entire online presence. In other words, social media platforms can be another means of finding a business, and given that their growing popularity is also being highlighted in Google’s latest evolutionary step, your company could be found more than once through the search engines: not just directly through the official site but also via the most popular social media websites.