Seen this today while searching... Showing Google plus info front page

[rosshouser]

Today while setting up a new pc and searching for Search Engine Land and also for this forum i notice something different that I have never seen before.
Google is now showing Google Plus Pages and recent posts on the first page of Google for your particular search. I have not at this time done any large testing for diferent businesses but mainly seeing it for more or references or news sites and forums such at this greatly informative forum by Linda Buquet.
If you even search for her name it shows a recent post on her Google plus page.

Is this new or has anyone else seen this and notice Google showing even if you search something similar to the local Google plus posts?


Example Here:
search engine land - Google Search | Awesome Screenshot

 

[HurricaneK8]

For branded searches (company name) this has been happening for a long time (at least in Canada). We have tested if the relevence of the most recent post to a keyword phrase had any ranking effect. It didn't, too easy for spammers

 

[rosshouser]

Yeah it doesn't show for any keywords in the pages post, but this is the first time I have seen it broadly used in the US for searching for Brands