Google is expected to plunge into the world of Facebook and Twitter, using its popular Gmail service to allow users to post status updates and items.

The search-engine giant, which recently tweaked its search function to allow easier access to social media results, has planned a 1 p.m. ET event at its California headquarters.

That comes a day after the Wall Street Journal quoted "people familiar with the matter" saying the feature would allow Facebook-style status updates, as well as pinging when users post something to affiliated sites like YouTube or Picasa.

If it appears as described, it would be a sort of anti-Twitter, making a user's updates private by default, as opposed to open, as they are on the micro-blogging site.

The hands-down leader in the search engine world, Google has been branching out on projects that include its Nexus One smartphone -- the company's first foray into hardware marketing.

Late last month,Google announced that people could tweak their accounts to make results related to friends, co-workers and other members of their social networks appear above all other results.

The Social Search feature was introduced to a limited number of Google users last year and was made available to everyone in beta status on January 28.

The change came with a hint of more things to come.

"This is just a first step in our ongoing effort to ensure that Google Web search is always as social as the Web itself," the company said in an instructional video posted to its official blog.

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