Recently Google was experimenting many design prototypes of search results, and yesterday only over the Google Searchology, Marissa Meyer unveiled the Google universal search which include not only a quick redesign of the top page, but also a new experience for search results. Results now are a mix between web results, images, maps, movies, locale, blogs, books, code, groups … etc and it will be displayed depending on user search query. For example if you are looking for PHP you will see links for “web,” “blogs,” “books,” “groups,” and “code,” whereas downtown los angeles will show “web”, “news”, “maps”, and “images”.
“Our focus has always been making our users’ search experience as simple and straightforward as possible,” said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. “The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query. While we still have a long way to go, today’s announcements are a big step in that direction.”
In addition to search results redesigned, there is also a new universal navigation bar showing almost all Google search services. Once you find a result you could easily switch from web to Finance for example or patents, while the top bar show always links for Mail, account settings, web history … etc.
New In the Labs
There are some other new features but experimental this time, including Timeline and map views (use with search view:map or view:timeline), a new Keyboard shortcuts for easy navigation for example try Googling magazine, and left/right hand search and contextual search navigation. These are all experimental new features but Google pushed them over the main Google page for the first time. Experimental labs features used to take some time before seeing them gratuated to beta and then goes public, but anyway the map and timeline views are not really new Google features since they are already existing withing Google news for example.
Move in progress
It is noticeable that Google didn’t move all their services to the new Universal Search model, because if you switch to Google Books or Videos you will find yourself with the classic Google services which could make it a little confusing to go back or to continue elsewhere. That’s why the press release indicates Google Begins Move to Universal Search, and it is not indicated how long the move will take but certainly won’t be that quick.
