Posted on May 16, 2007
Google Two point Oh
BY STEPAN MAZUROV
Earlier today Google unraveled quite a few features on a webcast which had over 500 viewers from all over the world. They are really taking a step towards having one unified search which is great for everyone. Their idea of having Google front page being able to give you results for video, images, news, maps, books and others from one search box is certainly a step in the right direction. Eliminating vertical search brings the user closer to their goal, the information.
Having one search taking care of ranking the relevance of 6 different search engines will certainly lower the rankings and SERPs for most websites and SEO won't be targeting just plain vanilla search, but taking into account video, Google local, images and most certainly news sections of Google. How cool is it to get a Bill Gates Pie video to be a top result for "Bill Gates" query?
A few other features rolled out today:
- New Navigation: Gone the bar right above the search box, it is moved to the top and dubbed "new universal navigation bar" which displays links to relevant Google apps depending on which property you are now.
- Google Experimental: If you ever had a feeling like you aren't part of the google proccess and they are in the blind, you can now help them test new things out. Right now you can give them feedback on a new "Time Line" search, using keyboard shortcuts while you search and Left or Right navigation bar instead of the brand new top navigation bar. Try it here.
- Cross Language Information Retrieval (CLIR): Not yet implemented, but as an effort to globalize and unifiy all information regadless of the language its written it, google has showcased what their systems are capable of, and its pretty damn impressive.
