Presenting user-generated content in search results

One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a search query from a computing device of a first user;
• identifying one or more social connections between the first user and one or more other users;
• identifying one or more first search results that correspond to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, the one or more first search results i) responsive to the search query based on a relevance score of the one or more first search results to the search query and ii) correspond to first content that is created by a first subset of the other users that are socially connected to the first user;
• identifying one or more second search results that correspond to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, the one or more second search results i) responsive to the search query based on a relevance score of the one or more second search results to the search query and ii) correspond to second content that is interacted by a second subset of the other users that are socially connected to the first user, the second subset of the other users are non-creators of the second content, wherein, for each item of second content, the relevance score is based on a non-existence of a social connection between the first user and the other user of the second subset of the other users that interacted with the second content item;
• obtaining control information associated with each of the one or more first and second search results, and based on the control information, identifying a first subset of the one or more first and second search results that may be included in search results;
• identifying one or more second third results that correspond to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, the one or more third search results including search results other than the user-created digital content and the user-interacted digital content;
• and
• transmitting data corresponding to i) the first subset of the one or more first and second search results and ii) the one or more third search results to the computing device for generating a display of the search results in accordance with the data.

A system comprising:

• one or more processing devices for executing instructions for a search engine, the instructions being executable to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a search query from a computing device of a first user;
• identifying one or more social connections between the first user and one or more other users;
• identifying one or more first search results that correspond to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, the one or more first search results i) responsive to the search query based on a relevance score of the one or more first search results to the search query and ii) correspond to first content that is created by a first subset of the other users that are socially connected to the first user;
• identifying one or more second search results that correspond to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, the one or more second search results i) responsive to the search query based on a relevance score of the one or more second search results to the search query and ii) correspond to second content that is interacted by a second subset of the other users that are socially connected to the user, the second subset of the other users are non-creators of the second content, wherein, for each item of second content, the relevance score is based on a non-existence of a social connection between the first user and the other user of the second subset of the other users that interacted with the second content item;
• obtaining control information associated with each of the one or more first and second search results, and based on the control information, identifying a first subset of the one or more first and second search results that may be included in search results;
• identifying one or more third search results that correspond to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, the one or more third search results including search results other than the user-created digital content and the user-interacted digital content;
• and
• transmitting data corresponding to i) the first subset of the one or more first and second search results and ii) the one or more third search results to the computing device for generating a display of the search results in accordance with the data.