Google+ API gets search functionality

Google has improved the tools that let people develop apps for its social network, Google+.

The company unveiled an early application programming interface (API) for Google+ in mid-September, making it possible for apps to read data that has been publicly posted on the platform. This week, the API gained significant new features, such as the ability to search for public posts.

"Thank you to all of you who tried out our first Google+ API release and let us know how you were using it. And thank you also to those of you who asked for more. In the spirit of releasing early and often, today we've released some of the new features that you requested," software engineer Jordanna Chord wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

The API's search feature allows apps to scan across the body and comments of public posts, as well as public profile information including name, biography, location, tag line and description.

Other features include the ability to have apps "find out who reshared a post or who +1'd a post", Chord wrote.

Although the API currently only supports search across public information, Chord suggested in a comment on her own Google+ post that Google was not ruling out letting the API target certain information that is invisible to the public.

"We haven't released any methods that support private data via the APIs and I'm not sure what they'll look like yet, but these are the type of requests we are keeping in mind," she wrote in reply to those requesting information about a user's circles.