Google surfaces your photos in search

Looking for a picture you took at your sister's bridal shower? Google's search engine will now help you find it -- so long as you've posted the shot to the company's companion social network.

The company announced Thursday that Google+ members can log in to Google.com and search for their own photos or query for a buddy's pictures stored on the social network. Just plug in queries such as "my photos from Vegas" or "Angie's wedding photos" and Google will scour through Google+ photo albums and return matching images on the search results page.

"Starting today, you'll be able to find your photos more easily and connect with the friends, places and events in your Google+ photos," Google Product Manager Matthew Kulick wrote in a blog post. "Now you can search for your friend's wedding photos or pictures from a concert you attended recently."

The photo search feature is powered by computer vision and machine learning technologies, Kulick said, which help Google identify the concepts in your shots.

The search addition is all a part of Google's master plan to own social. What better way to drive home the value of Google+ than to make people's digital memories that much easier to relocate?