Google Retools Search Engine

SYSTEM REBUILD ADDS BOOKS, MOVIES, IMAGES, MAPS TO QUERY RESULTS
By Elise Ackerman
Mercury News

Dave Comments (Digital Marketing Tutorial Blog): I’ve been using “universal search” all day today. I like the universal search concept Google is pursuing, but I haven’t really noticed a change in the search results I receive in my typical business and sports-related searches.
The one negative comment I have is this: I’m not sure why Google decided to move the “Web, Images, Video, News, Maps, etc.” line of links from where it’s been the last several years to the highest point on the page. I would rather they just added the word “All” to that line on the far left to indicate that searches being done in that mode include all of the other possible “vertical” searches. I think the “new look” adds a layer of complexity that is not necessary, and it’s a bit distracting because, prior to today, I would probably click on the “News” link 4-5 times just to see what’s going on before proceeding with my Google search. Now that the News link is out of the main Google home page focus (the search box), it’s a bit more difficult to find/click on – I find that I don’t do it instinctively.

“In a bold and potentially risky move, Google is making dramatic changes to the way it helps hundreds of millions of people find information on the Internet.

Executives Wednesday unveiled a new master search engine at the company’s Mountain View headquarters. In addition to pointing people to Web sites, Google will now steer them to digital books, movies, images, news articles and maps that could contain the answers they are looking for.

The new search engine at google.com, whose features are going to be slowly rolled out over the coming months, combines half a dozen search engines previously used only by a handful of cognoscenti who knew where to find them on Google’s sprawling Web site.”

Read the full article on MercuryNews.com.