In the most significant upgrade of its search engine in years, Google Inc. has added videos, book excerpts and local store information on its main results page, eliminating the need for users to visit the company's separate, specialized sites.
The Mountain View company unveiled the changes Wednesday as part of a plan called universal search that aims to make more kinds of information accessible from a single Internet search box.
Users will see that Google's results, traditionally a long list of blue links and snippets of text, are peppered with images for certain searches. For example, a query for "Steve Jobs" brings up several images of Apple Inc.'s co-founder at the top of the results, plus a video of him down the page from Google's video service, YouTube.
Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, called the new approach "the largest revamp we've made to search in at least a few years."
Google's executives described Wednesday's news as the first step in a long effort to integrate the company's disparate search engines, all but the main one focused on narrow categories. Many users, the executives acknowledged, had no idea some of the engines existed or were confused about how they worked.
"We had so many search engines that it was almost like you needed a search engine to search the search engines," said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search and user experience.
For years, Google has wanted to expand the information available from its main search engine, but it lacked the extra servers necessary for the project. Since then, Google has spent billions of dollars on new infrastructure, and plans to open several data centers in the next few years.
In addition to video, books and local results, Google will blend news and photos into its main results. More categories are to be added in the future.
The upgrade increases the pressure on Yahoo and Microsoft, which trail Google by a wide margin in terms of search market share. Google has proven to be a more-nimble competitor by releasing products at a much faster pace.
Offering specialized information from the main search box isn't entirely new for Google. The company had previously shown news and photos in boxes on top of the search results page.
Starting Wednesday, those kinds of links were found among the traditional results. When and where they appear on the page will depend on Google's algorithm, which was adjusted to take into account universal search.
At first, Google said, the changes will be subtle. But they are expected to increase .
Google's addition of video to its main search engine adds to the visibility of YouTube, which was acquired last year for $1.65 billion. YouTube's clips, along with those from Google Video, can be played on the Google search results page, without having to click to another page.
Videos from other sites, such as Metacafe, will appear within Google's results as thumbnail images. Watching those clips will be less convenient because users will have to click through to a different Web site to play them.
In adopting a new format, Google is running the risk of alienating users by presenting them with a more cluttered page. But the company said it thoroughly tested the design and got positive feedback.
A lingering question is whether Google's format will affect the number of users clicking on the tiny text ads displayed next to the results. Any decline could have a major financial impact on the company, which generates virtually all of its revenue from advertising.
But Mayer said improving results is Google's primary goal, regardless of the effect on advertising. In any case, she said, users will be encouraged by the better relevancy to search more often, giving them more opportunities to click on ads.
Mayer said the format also lets Google add more-colorful advertising to the results page. Google has expanded into selling banner and video ads, but currently only distributes them to partner Web sites.
Andrew Frank, an analyst for Gartner Inc., applauded Google's decision to offer more information from a single search box, but was more circumspect about the impact on advertising, calling for a wait-and-see approach.
Separately, Google plans to subtly adjust its home page so that links to Google properties appear near the top of the page rather than above the search box. In addition, Google is opening an area called Google Experimental, where users can sign up to try out some of Google's search experiments and provide Google with feedback.
From Google News.
http://news.google.com?ned=in&topic=t
Actual Source:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg.../17/GOOGLE.TMP
Big Google search upgrade Users will be able to find videos, excerpts and local store
Linear Mode
