Google Introduces Major Interface & Algorithm Update
With Google’s universal search, every time you search, Google checks across all of its search properties – web, image, video, news, etc – and presents a single unified results page that incorporates the most relevant content.
At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time, users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a comprehensive search experience.
Google’s new universal interface is undoubtedly the boldest change by the search engine in many years, and the company has to upgrade its technology to support the latest rollout significantly.
Google is also deploying a new technical infrastructure that will enable the search engine to handle the computationally intensive tasks required to produce universal search results. As always, Google(TM) search results are ranked automatically by algorithms to deliver the best results to users anywhere in the world.
“Google has continued to concentrate on improving the quality of search,” said Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google. “The level and speed of search innovation at Google has increased. Most of this innovation addresses basic ranking algorithms and is often not obvious to users. Users often see more accurate results in more languages, which is our primary goal.”
In addition to the new algorithm, Google has made changes to the navigation options, presenting new menu options “on the fly” depending on the type of search query.
New dynamically generated navigation links have been added above the search results to suggest additional information relevant to a user’s query. For example, a search for “python” will now generate links to Google Blog Search(TM), Google Book Search(TM), Google Groups(TM), and Google Code(TM) to let the user know there is additional information on his or her query in each of those areas. As a result, users can find a more comprehensive array of information on their topic, including data types they might not have initially considered.
Google’s telling users – and its competitors – that it has figured out how to identify the type of search query entered and provide a single set of results that will include all the information you could want. Now we’ve seen Google dominating predictive search – showing us images or stock prices – this overhaul of the search results page completely changes how everyone interacts with Google.
Users will benefit, as they’ll likely find Google’s search results much more relevant. Meanwhile, search engine optimizers will find that their job has become more complex. Now, instead of focusing on web search and battling others for one of the coveted Top 10 spots for a particular search term, they’re going to find the Top 10 now includes results drawn from other indexes such as images, news, and video. SEOs will be faced with two choices. Stick with just web search and content that they may only have 5-6 opportunities to be in the Top 10 on Google, or look at ways to optimize content such as photos, videos, and news items and use a broader approach to gaining page one exposure. SEO is critical to your website: it helps it rank in the best position possible.
