Google+ now lets you start conversations directly from its search results

When you’re searching for something on Google+, you can comment on an existing post or share an item that you’ve found. To date, those are the only ways to interact with a certain phrase or issue that you’re interested in.

Today, the Google+ team has announced a new feature that lets you start a conversation directly from search results. For example, if you search on #StopSOPA, you are shown a box to start a new conversation about the topic and the search result is tagged in your post.

Here’s what the team had to say about this new handy tool:

Today we’re introducing a new feature that lets you share directly from Google+ search results, and contribute to a topical Google+ stream. For example, if you search for basketball and then want to make a post about how your favorite team or player is doing, you can share right from the search results.

Just look for the sharebox after searching on Google+, and you’ll see an opportunity to “join the discussion” about whatever you’ve searched for.

When you post from the search results page, it automatically includes a link back to the original search stream. This way others can join the active conversation as it unfolds.

The idea of turning actions like search into a conversation takes the pressure off of users to come up with unique content to become a part of a discussion. This is a great move to bring all of Google+’s data together to make the social network feel more social, and to increase the stickiness of posts and trends. The top argument against using Google+ has been that many people feel like they’re alone if they don’t have a lot of friends on the service.

It’s only a matter of time before this feature is introduced into Google’s main search engine. Currently, you can only +1 a search result and you’re not prompted to comment on it or discuss it. Opening up that feature on Search Plus Your World would create an infinite stream of conversation and a lot of new clicks for those whose listings get ranked high on the search engine.