Other companies, notably Apple, have tried for years to connect the TV with the internet - with mixed results. The New York Times reports that the project has been in development for several months. Intel’s, involvement could signal that the company wants to broaden the market for the Atom chipset, which is a likely candidate for the new set-top box. Sony on the other hands needs to find ways to stay on the cutting edge of consumer electronics.

Several online sites report that Logitech is involved in the project as well to develop audio capabilities. Since the new system will be based on the Android platform, developers can freely add TV applications. Google is already involved in a set-top box project with Dish Network that will enable users to find and watch video content on internet sites such as YouTube.

Google already facilitates status messages that display under user names in the instant-message chat area of its webmail client. The new feature will allow Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with. It will also make it easier for users of Google's web-based email service to share links, content and media with friends from video-sharing sites such as YouTube, and photo-sharing service Picasa. Google has refused to comment; however, it is holding a press conference on Wednesday to "unveil some new products and innovations".

Google is facing increasing competition from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, which dominate the social web. “Anything Google does with Gmail should be seen as a defensive maneuver,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner.

Google will let English-language users of its search engine see relevant links to items their social-networking contacts have posted publicly on the Web. Social Search results will also appear in the Google Images engine.

The announcement was made by Google Social Search Technical Lead Maureen Heymans via blog-post. “While we've been enjoying Social Search, we've been hard at work on new features. For example, we've added social to Google Images,” said Heymans.

“Now when you're doing a search on Images, you may start seeing pictures from people in your social circle. These are pictures that your friends and other contacts have published publicly to the web on photo-sharing sites like Picasa Web Albums and Flickr. Just like the other social results, social image results appear under a special heading called Results from your social circle,” so Heymans. “We think there's tremendous potential for social information to improve search, and we're just beginning to scratch the surface. We're leaving a ‘beta’ label on social results because we know there's a lot more we can do.”

Users will have to create their own Google profile to run Social Search, and add their own contacts and bookmarks. Google said that it will add support for other languages soon.