Subscribe - Search Engine Watch

March 6, 2008

Google Serves Up Search Within Search Results

Yesterday, Google announced that it is rolling out its new Search within a Site feature. When searching for specific sites instead of keywords, users are able to conduct a secondary search of those sites within Google results.

For example, if a user searches for "NASA" at Google, the first result returns NASA.gov. Underneath that result is a search box with a submit button with the text "Search nasa.gov."

The reason for the update? "Through experimentation, we found that presenting users with a search box as part of the result increases their likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for," wrote Ben Lee, software developer, and Jack Menzel, product manager on the Official Google Blog.

Lee and Menzel also offered insight into how Google is implementing the feature. "This feature will now occur when we detect a high probability that a user wants more refined search results within a specific site. Like the rest of our snippets, the sites that display the site search box are chosen algorithmically based on metrics that measure how useful the search box is to users."

Posted by Nathania at 10:15 AM | Permalink

November 24, 2006

Google Blog Results Search Creep

Andy Boyd found Google testing blog search results at the bottom of the Google search results. He posted a screen capture here, as you can see, it is fairly similar to how they have integrated news archive results into Google search.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:52 AM | Permalink

Extended Indented Google Results Bug?

Philipp Lenssen spotted listings with more than one indented results for a search on get fuzzy. The first two results were from comics.com and the two other indented results were from Yahoo News. All these results were under the first listing, so we had three indented results showing under the top listing. Typically, there is only one indented result and no more. I cannot replicate this, it seems like a weird bug that may have been fixed. Philipp has a screen capture of it in action.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:42 AM | Permalink

November 20, 2006

Google Testing Map Quick Link Under Search Results

Threadwatch screen captured Google testing out placing a link to Google maps results directly below the search result's description and above the url of that result. It is a limited test, and I am not able to reproduce it, but Matt Cutts of Google has confirmed this as a real test. As long as it is useful to the query and the searcher, I am happy with it also.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:57 AM | Permalink

October 2, 2006

Google's New SearchMash Test Site

Google's gained a new unbranded site called SearchMash where it plans to test user interface ideas without Google's brand somehow skewing the tests. Below, more about the site and comments from Google about it.

Currently, SearchMash allows you to perform a search and get web and image results presented side-by-side. It's similar to how A9 has long allowed side-by-side results, ironically a feature that A9 has made much harder to implement after a recent redesign over there.

Web results are presented in the main left-hand column after a search and seem ranked the same as at Google. Unlike Google, presentation is different. Results are numbered. Clicking on the URL line makes a box pop-up with options to:

open the listing in the current window
a new window
to see more pages from that web site
to find similar pages.

After the first ten results, there's a "more web pages" link at the bottom. Click on this, and you get another 10 results magically appearing on the same page, inserted below the first 10. You can keep going, adding 10 more results at a time.

It's pretty slick. Microsoft's Windows Live had a somewhat similar "infinite scroll" feature that allowed you to keep getting more and more results, as you went down the page. Unveiled in March, it was dropped in September for web results (it still works for image results) when Windows Live came out of beta, as Microsoft felt it slowed performance.

While A9 dropped so many features, "continuous scroll" is something it gained. Do a search there, and as you scroll down, more results keep magically appearing, 10 at a time.

Unique to SearchMash is the ability to drag-and-drop web search results. Click on the number next to any listing, and you can move that listing higher or lower in the search results. The number doesn't change after you move it. The feature also doesn't seem that useful. Far better would be a scratch pad-style feature such as Windows Live offers for image search. Being able to drag-and-drop web results into some type of collection area would be handy -- and it's something that Microsoft is promising.

Those are the features at the moment, which you can also find described on the site's features page. What you won't find is much about Google on the site. The About page doesn't mention them. You've got to go into the privacy page where you discover:

SearchMash is a website operated by Google Inc. The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use our products and services, including information provided when you use SearchMash. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to SearchMash.

So what's up with SearchMash. I fired some questions off to Google, and here's what I got:

Q. When did this go up from Google?

Very recently.

Q. Why are you doing it?

SearchMash is an experimental search site operated by Google. The goal of SearchMash is to test innovative user interfaces in order to continually improve the overall search experience for our users.
The site does not include Google branding to help us gather more objective data about user response to new interfaces.
There is no guarantee that the features tested on SearchMash will be seen on Google search. As with all of our experiments, one of the main factors we will consider is user response to the feature and how well it addresses their needs.
This site is only a test and has traffic limitations so may be unavailable at times.

Q. Why is it not on Google Labs?

Google Labs continues to be a great site for Google to launch new products that may not be ready for prime time yet, frequently and quickly. In this case, one of the important factors we wanted to address was the influence that may come from Google branding. Creating a separate site will help us gather more objective data about user response to new interfaces.

OK, next some follow-ups and speculation. First, how can a site that no one knows about be useful to Google? Pretty much no one heard of it until the past day. As best I can tell:

The Word "Mashup" Key to Newly Registered Google Domain Names from Gary Price yesterday at ResourceShelf noted that searchmash.com was one of many mash-related domain names registered by Google, leading to...
Google Registers Search Mashup Domains from Google Blogoscoped getting a comment from Peter Warden, who runs a different SearchMash site, noticing that SearchMash.com was active now when only a few days ago, it wasn't. That lead to...
Whatâ€™s A SearchMash.com From Google? from Gary Price again at ResourceShelf, highlighting the new domain and service in more detail. Similarly, SearchMash, a New Google Search Site from Google Operating System is a shorter highlight. And now you've got me talking about it, along with no doubt many other reviews and mentions to come.

So the site's going to have plenty of visitors, but all the wrong type, people who are the influencers or tech-heads or early adopters that Google's not trying to test against.

Remember, Google's been doing a lot of testing over the past year or so. Barry Schwartz just noted yet another sidebar navigation experiment yesterday. The experiments became so frequent and much discussed that I was begging Google in March to provide more official notice about what they were doing. Google's response to me was that announcing the experiments would skew the results.

Still, with everyone watching them so closely, experiments were quickly noted by the blogging community. That may have helped Google decide in April to blog itself about how it tries to test things against small groups. It even illustrated some of its experiments.

Now SearchMash gives Google an experimental playground, one similar to how AllTheWeb is supposed to operate for Yahoo, though aside from LiveSearch being launched there in May, Yahoo's not done much with AllTheWeb.

Google can play with weird stuff at SearchMash without worrying about "normal" users having the Google brand set up expectations. But how do those normals (or "mundanes" for you Babylon 5 fans) get to the site? From Google:

We have various methods for driving traffic to search and UI experiments that we run but we don't share details regarding the methodology to help keep the results as objective as possible.

A couple of guesses here. Google is likely (or will be likely) to divert people to the site in various ways, such as perhaps if someone uses an AdSense For Search box on a content site. It might simply push some people trying to reach Google to SearchMash (perhaps with some interstitial page warning them beforehand). It also gives them a site to put before controlled focus groups, where they might not know Google is behind it.

What about the skewing that will happen now that early adopters and the Google-obsessed will be all over SearchMash? They can be filtered out. If Google is directing certain groups to the site in various ways, it can then filter studies of user behavior to just those groups.

OK, one last thing. What about the idea that SearchMash will be the new place for Google to allow people to create custom search engines of their own, similar to Yahoo Search Builder launched last month or the older Rollyo or Eurekster Swicki services?

Garett Rogers last week wondered if the IndexBench trademark Google applied for recently was a sign that Google was planning custom vertical search engines. Now he wonders if SearchMash will instead be the place for this, after Google Operating System highlighted a Time Magazine article confirm that Google plans this:

Marissa Mayer, who manages search products, says the company has assigned more engineers to search than ever before and plans to release a new search tool that will enable users to design and build their own flavor of Google search, scanning just the sites they're interested in.

So yes, custom vertical searches are coming, likely more substantial and customizable than the long-standing Site-Flavored Google Search that's been out since 2004 and recently upgraded this year. But Google wouldn't say if it will be on SearchMash or not. So wait, watch and see.

Finally, the feel of SearchMash to A9 in many ways is uncanny. As I noted in my Amazon's A9 Becomes, Well, Sort Of Nothing post earlier today, A9 was an experimental playground for Amazon that seems to have lost its way after it lost its CEO Udi Manber to Google. I haven't heard back from Google on whether Manber is now running SearchMash. But seeing the side-by-side results that were a hallmark of A9, plus the infinite scroll similar to what A9 just rolled out (and what may have been in the works before Manber left A9), it sure feels like he's running a new playground search engine -- this time for Google.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:26 PM | Permalink

The Accent Is On Search

An interesting article in Pandia about an overlooked area of search - Searching Google for words with accents. The bottom line is that it's difficult and fiddly to do it, and it depends on a number of different factors that the searcher cannot control. Let's take the example (as given) by Pandia for Mexico and MÃ©xico. A search will probably return sites that contain either word, but to force the engine to return hits with the accented version a search for +MÃ©xico will pretty much work (though there may be a few oddities caused by inbound links.

However, results will differ depending on IP address, language of the Google home page being used, and preferred language. Now, this is useful as far as the searcher is concerned, since it should result in rather more accurate results, but it's going to be a concern for search engine marketers, since it makes the idea of being (say) #8 in Google a rather moveable feast, - is it #8 for Google.com users, or for Spanish language users? Still, no-one said that internet searching was supposed to be easy, did they?

Of course, it doesn't help either when we start to look into the results in a little more detail. Searching on Google.co.uk (searching the web, not just the UK) a search for Mexico returns 671,000,000 results, as does mexico (with a lower case). However, searching for MÃ©xico gives me 665,000,000 results, but a search for mÃ©xico 6,000,000 less, with 659,000,000. When we get into the insanity of searching for mÃ©xico -mexico with a result of 725,000,000 things certainly get a little more confused again. My one crumb of comfort is that searches on Ask.com tend to be rather more stable, but even then, not perfect. All goes to show - don't trust search engine results!

Posted by Phil Bradley at 8:53 AM | Permalink

September 25, 2006

Google Displaying Really Long Site Descriptions?

Philipp Lenssen spotted a screen capture of Google displaying a really long and extended description within the search results page for a search on [blogspot.com autoregistration]. I personally do not see the nine or so line description myself. Matt Cutts of Google commented saying he was also not able to "recreate those snippets," so maybe a temporary Google bug, spyware, or a fake?

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:40 PM | Permalink

Goodbye Froogle; Hello Google Product Results In Web Search

Froogle, Google's shopping search engine that launched with big hopes back in 2002, is to be deemphasized in place of product listings integrated into regular Google search results.

The news has come out through Google's participation at the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance Summit last week in San Francisco. IDG has coverage of it here, saying:

A Google official shared the news with attendees at the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) Summit in San Francisco this week, according to people at the conference.

When people search for products on Google.com, the system will present them with another search box so that they can refine their query, wrote Bear Stearns analysts in a note published on Friday.

After people refine their query, Google takes them to a second page populated with product results from the Google Base listings service, wrote the analysts, who attended the Google official's presentation.

The association with the eBay sellers group and product results "powered" by Google Base is causing some confusion, in my view, about eBay "killer" Google Base "replacing" Froogle. Let's back up.

Froogle used to have its own feed mechanism to allow merchants to submit products. This system predated the system for sending material into Google Base.
In June, the Froogle submission system went away, replaced by submission to Google Base (and see also here). If Froogle was being "replaced" by Google Base, this is the time it happened.
Google Base has never been designed as a standalone service for searchers. The user interface there hasn't been that appealing, nor have searchers been seriously directed to it. In fact, the search box on the Google Base home page was just dropped, not something you do for a service designed for searchers. It is something you do, however, to help Google Base's mission of being a centralized submission tool for Google.
Google has been testing ways to flow customized results from Google Base into regular Google, to help deal with the invisible tabs issue I've long written about. My Google Real Estate? It's Google Base Again, Google's Vertical Play from earlier this year explains this integration in more depth.
Putting product results into regular Google results makes sense, just as it does for any type of vertical or custom results that Google does. This has mainly been through OneBox results, but the new Google Base-style placements allow for the search box on results pages to contain more options, ones helpful to narrowing for product or other type of vertical searching.

Froogle as a brand and destination set for demotion was pretty clear when it was dropped from the Google home page last month, a position it held since 2004. That placement never helped Froogle much, in part because many people simply ignore the little links above the search box entirely. In addition, in my view, Froogle is a cutesy name that never explain what Froogle was -- a shopping search engine. If it had been called Google Shopping, take-up might have been better.

Given this, "deemphasizing" Froogle as a destination isn't hard given that few seem to think of it as a destination anyway. Back in July, Hitwise found it ranked ninth among Google top 29 properties -- and sharewise, not that far behind Google Video (0.45 percent of all visitors to the top 20 Google sites went to Froogle versus 0.47 percent going to Google Video).

Google Video's move on to the home page helped that service and hurt Froogle, as Hitwise later notes. But again, sharewise, it was hardly noticeable. Froogle dropped to the 0.02 percent range, while Google Video rose to the 0.06 percent range. In other words, practically no one was going to either service compared to things like Google web search overall.

That's why better integration of all vertical search results into listings will be coming at Google, as well as other search engines. But I hope we will see a renamed Google Shopping service still survive, with a custom home page and URL. Shopping search is important enough that it deserves a standalone brand.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:00 AM | Permalink

September 20, 2006

The Unchanging Search Interface

Why Search Sucks & You Won't Fix It The Way You Think from me on my personal blog Daggle covers a session I did at Euro Foo Camp this week. It looks at how the search interface of major search engines has largely stayed unchanged over time. We're still using what I call the "DOS of Search." Interestingly, the Google Base change that just happened is a unique event -- the first major search engine to have an important property without that all-important search box on the home page. For me, it's just another sign of how Google Base is not intended to be a consumer-facing product, as I've written before.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:22 AM | Permalink

September 19, 2006

URL Vs. Navigational Queries Explained: AKA, Why Did URL Searches At Google Change?

Matt Cutts from Google has a great follow up on our reports that Google Modifies Navigational Search Results from about two-plus weeks ago. In his post, he explains that when you search on a URL (i.e. www.searchenginewatch.com), Google has stopped showing the information for the URL and now shows a standard search on the words in the URL itself. I learned two things from Matt's post.

(1) Entering in the URL of a site into to a search box is not labeled as a "navigational search" it is labeled as a "URL search." Navigational searches are when you search on a company name, i.e. Search Engine Watch versus a URL search is when you search on a company URL, i.e. searchenginewatch.com.

(2) To a normal user, bringing back search results for a URL search is more useful then bring back the information on that URL, in Matt's opinion. If SEOs and webmasters want to pull that information, we still can still do this by using the info:www.domain.com command. It works like this for this blog, [info:blog.searchenginewatch.com] and it shows you information for this URL.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:51 AM | Permalink

September 8, 2006

Google News Archive Search Creep

Earlier this week Google released Google News Archive Search, and I just spotted that database being integrated into Google Search results. I did an ego search on my name, Barry Schwartz and saw at the bottom this:

You can see a full size image here of the Google News Archive Search "creep" into the main Google search results. They are naming it "Archive Search results for barry schwartz" it would be clearer if they used the words, "Archive News Search results for barry schwartz" instead. The result takes you here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:18 AM | Permalink

Google Sitelinks: New Name For Those Links Under The Top Listings

Last year, people started to notice that Google began showing "subtopic" or "subcategory" links below their listing, if they were the first in a Google search. Now, Google's finally confirmed the change as a permanent feature and given it a name: sitelinks.

Here's an example of sitelinks in action, which I tapped into doing a search for HP:

Notice how under the first result, there are a number of sub-listings, such as:

Software & Driver Downloads - http://welcome.hp.com/.../us/en/support.html Contact HP - http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact_us.html Jobs - http://www.jobs.hp.com/ Small & Medium Business - http://www.hp.com/sbso/

Those are sitelinks, and now named via the Information about Sitelinks post at the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. Do the search, and you'll see only the first result gets them (you'll also notice that Google is failing to remove the second www.hp.com listing as it should -- only one major listing per web site per results page should be showing. I think there's a bug, at the moment).

How do you get sitelinks? You have to be in the first position for a search. Aside from that, whether they'll still then show up and exactly which ones show, if so, aren't explained. Here's the new help page on that.

Want some clues? Try looking at our Google Web Site Categories Explored post from earlier this year.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Getting New Sitelinks Under Your Top Listing At Google thread at the Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:02 AM | Permalink

September 1, 2006

Google Modifies Navigational Search Results

I reported this morning that Google has changed the way they handle navigational like searches. For example, if you do a search on a site's name (i.e. navigational) you now get a different type of result set then you did a week or so ago.

For example, a search on the popular buy.com will now show: Show Google's cache of www.buy.com Find web pages that are similar to www.buy.com Find web pages that link to www.buy.com Find web pages from the site www.buy.com Find web pages that contain the term "www.buy.com"

Instead it will show you results that match the keyword phrase "buy.com." That includes links to possible competitors. I wonder if that will upset geico.com?

In any event, I have compared how Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com handle these types of navigational queries at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:27 AM | Permalink

August 24, 2006

Google Maps Inline With Search Results

Philipp Lenssen spotted someone who captured Google inserting a plus sign in the search results, when you click on that plus sign, it opens up a Google Maps result. Earlier, we reported that Google displayed map results in the OneBox area. This application of the Google Maps product requires user action to click on the plus sign, which opens up the Maps result. I have tested this out on the query that generated this Google response but was unsuccessful in replicating its behavior on a Mac or PC (Firefox or IE).

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:34 AM | Permalink

August 4, 2006

Google Web Category Links Get Overhaul

I just posted over at Search Engine Roundtable and it was posted early at Ogletree, that Google has changed the interface for Google web categories links. Yesterday, a search on a search phrase that brought out the web categories, such as a search on Google for yahoo, you would have seen horizontal listing of the categories, as opposed to the vertical listings you now see. Google began testing this on May 1st and it appears it is now live for all to see. Want to see the before and after? Before here and after here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:28 AM | Permalink

Google Provides Warnings Of Potentially Hazardous Search Results

Philipp Lenssen found a Google Systems post that discovered Google now provides an intermediary page, for some search results, informing you that the result you clicked on may "harm your computer." You can see this intermediary page for yourself by clicking here, it looks like Google is calling it an interstitial page. Why even list the site in the search results if they may be harmful to your computer? Well, the key terms are "may be harmful," so let the user decide. I wonder if these potentially risky pages get some sort of downgrade in rankings?

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:35 AM | Permalink

July 24, 2006

Google Test Expandable "More" Link

Philipp Lenssen reports Google is testing an expandable box that opens with options, when you click on the "more" link from the Google.com home page. The more link currently takes people to the more google products page, but this link, is a little DHTML popup that has links to these products directly on the page. The pop up cannot possibly have all of the products listed, so they have a link to "even more" products that probably links to the page. A screen shot is at Philipp's site.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:03 AM | Permalink

Google Test Expandable "More" Link

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:03 AM | Permalink

Google Test Expandable "More" Link

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:03 AM | Permalink

Google Test Expandable "More" Link

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:03 AM | Permalink

July 6, 2006

Search For "Therapy Products" On Google Suggests Yahoo As Alternative Results

SEO Speedwagon posts notes that a query on Google for [therapy products] displays a See Results For box listing pages from Yahoo. These mid-page results are supposed to help people find pages somehow related to their original query -- but Yahoo really has nothing to do with therapy products. How weird, how strange? I had to take a screen capture myself, just in case the others get lost.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:26 AM | Permalink

Search For "Therapy Products" On Google Suggests Yahoo As Alternative Results

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:26 AM | Permalink

Search For "Therapy Products" On Google Suggests Yahoo As Alternative Results

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:26 AM | Permalink

Search For "Therapy Products" On Google Suggests Yahoo As Alternative Results

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:26 AM | Permalink

June 14, 2006

Google Images Home Page Design Test

Philipp Lenssen has screen captures of an other new search interface design, this time being test on Google Images. The test is running a vertical navigation of Google's other properties either on the left hand side or directly above the search box. The one directly above the search box looks awkward to me.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:40 AM | Permalink

Google Images Home Page Design Test

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:40 AM | Permalink

Google Images Home Page Design Test

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:40 AM | Permalink

Google Images Home Page Design Test

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:40 AM | Permalink

June 13, 2006

New Flavor Of Expand & Collapse Results

Back in April, Google was testing expand and collapse results that contained more detailed information about a site when expanded. Then, Google used an arrow to expand and collapse the results. New details, I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable this morning, shows screen captures of Google now testing a similar expand and collapse feature, but this time with using plus and minus signs. You can see an image at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Want to discuss? Join our forum thread named Plus button for more info on results.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:14 AM | Permalink

New Flavor Of Expand & Collapse Results

Want to discuss? Join our forum thread named Plus button for more info on results.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:14 AM | Permalink

New Flavor Of Expand & Collapse Results

Want to discuss? Join our forum thread named Plus button for more info on results.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:14 AM | Permalink

New Flavor Of Expand & Collapse Results

Want to discuss? Join our forum thread named Plus button for more info on results.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:14 AM | Permalink

June 5, 2006

Google Testing Expandable "More Google" Links On Home Page & More

Philipp Lenssen reports that Google has been testing an expandable "More you can do with Google" link on the Google.com home page.

The screen capture shows a text link with an arrow directly under the Google search box that reads "More you can do with Google." When you click on the link, it expands the options out to include image, group, news, Froogle, maps, books, video, desktop and more search options.

He also shows screen captures of Google suggesting you try the other vertical search engines at the bottom of the Google results. Is this a poor or good attempt at implementing an Ask.com like search toolbox?

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:35 AM | Permalink

Google Testing Expandable "More Google" Links On Home Page & More

Philipp Lenssen reports that Google has been testing an expandable "More you can do with Google" link on the Google.com home page.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:35 AM | Permalink

Google Testing Expandable "More Google" Links On Home Page & More

Philipp Lenssen reports that Google has been testing an expandable "More you can do with Google" link on the Google.com home page.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:35 AM | Permalink

Google Testing Expandable "More Google" Links On Home Page & More

Philipp Lenssen reports that Google has been testing an expandable "More you can do with Google" link on the Google.com home page.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:35 AM | Permalink

May 1, 2006

Google Testing New User Interface For Web Categories?

Last week we explored Google's Web categories deeper but now it looks like the user interface for those Web categories may be changing (or maybe not). Google System reports that some folks overseas are noticing the Web categories being pulled out and listed separately on an individual line with the URL listed as well. You can see a large image of this UI by clicking here. As you can see, the interface pushes down the second result about half way down the page.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:44 AM | Permalink

Google Testing New User Interface For Web Categories?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:44 AM | Permalink

Google Testing New User Interface For Web Categories?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:44 AM | Permalink

Google Testing New User Interface For Web Categories?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:44 AM | Permalink

April 25, 2006

Google Confirms More User Interface Tests

Google has officially confirmed recent tests with the Google user interface that has been spreading around the Internet. This is not the first time Google has confirmed a UI test, they have done it at least once before. Google has confirmed the limited test of Vertical Search Links In New Left Column and Google Base Results Creeping.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:22 AM | Permalink

Google Confirms More User Interface Tests

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:22 AM | Permalink

Google Confirms More User Interface Tests

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:22 AM | Permalink

Google Confirms More User Interface Tests

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:22 AM | Permalink

April 12, 2006

Google Expand & Collapse Results With Embedded Images, Content & Search Site?

Michael Nguyen spotted a post by Dave Winer that shows Google testing this weird expand and collapse Google search user interface. Basically, a search on Canada brought back little blue arrows on the left of the page title, when you clicked on the arrow, it displayed a picture, content from the site and a "search this site" box. For an image of it in action, see here.

Postscript: See also some nice screenshots on the feature from Yellowpipe here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:18 AM | Permalink

Google Expand & Collapse Results With Embedded Images, Content & Search Site?

Postscript: See also some nice screenshots on the feature from Yellowpipe here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:18 AM | Permalink

Google Expand & Collapse Results With Embedded Images, Content & Search Site?

Postscript: See also some nice screenshots on the feature from Yellowpipe here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:18 AM | Permalink

Google Expand & Collapse Results With Embedded Images, Content & Search Site?

Postscript: See also some nice screenshots on the feature from Yellowpipe here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:18 AM | Permalink

April 6, 2006

Google Confirms Midpage "See Results For" Results Out Of Testing -- What Should They Be Called?

I griped recently about Google not committing to some of its user interface experiments. Well, they have with one of them, those middle-of-the-page "See results for" suggestions that some have seen. They have been declared officially part of the Google web search results pages, not just an experiment that might go away. More about this below, plus a call for people to suggest a common name for them.

GoogleGuy confirms the feature is part of the regular Google UI in one of our SEW Forums threads, after yet again, someone was asking about them.

Our long-standing thread about this feature is here: New Middle Of The Page "More Results" Experiment On Google. It gives lots of examples on how the feature works. Currently, you should be able to see if in a search for relentless. You should get a section midway down that says:

See results for: relentless records

Relentless Relentless logo. New site coming soon... Recording artists: KT Tunstall · Joss Stone. A&R contact: Relentless 43 Brook Green ... www.relentless-records.net/

index.html Relentless "Metal" Records. Welcome to our domain... Enter. © RELENTLESS "METAL" RECORDS. Tax Attorney · Tax Attorney. www.relentless-records.us/

Relentless Records Home Resurrection was released in 1999 by Angel Witch Productions associated with Relentless Records, then put out by Crook'd Records, then bootlegged by Zoom ... www.angel-witch.net/

Some further background is here, along with them being spotted way back in early August 2005. It can be hit and miss about what exactly triggers it. However, if you do see it happen, others should also see it for the same query.

I was also talking with Google about this feature directly yesterday. I was told these were made part of the official UI a few weeks after initially being tested. They were deemed successful, so Google made them a regular feature.

As GoogleGuy notes, Google expects to have documentation up on Google's guide to its web search results pages shortly. But they don't have an official name for these yet.

So let's help! What do you think they should be called? I'll throw out one suggestion. Call that section the MidBox or MidBox Results. We already have OneBox results at the top of the page, so it kind of fits in with that but also communications the position on the page.

What do you think of the feature? Have some suggested names? Please comment in our SEW Forums thread, Google Confirms Mid-Page "See Results For" Section No Longer A Test; Suggest A Name!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:36 AM | Permalink

Google Confirms Midpage "See Results For" Results Out Of Testing -- What Should They Be Called?

GoogleGuy confirms the feature is part of the regular Google UI in one of our SEW Forums threads, after yet again, someone was asking about them.

See results for: relentless records

Relentless Relentless logo. New site coming soon... Recording artists: KT Tunstall · Joss Stone. A&R contact: Relentless 43 Brook Green ... www.relentless-records.net/

index.html Relentless "Metal" Records. Welcome to our domain... Enter. © RELENTLESS "METAL" RECORDS. Tax Attorney · Tax Attorney. www.relentless-records.us/

As GoogleGuy notes, Google expects to have documentation up on Google's guide to its web search results pages shortly. But they don't have an official name for these yet.

What do you think of the feature? Have some suggested names? Please comment in our SEW Forums thread, Google Confirms Mid-Page "See Results For" Section No Longer A Test; Suggest A Name!

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:36 AM | Permalink

Google Confirms Midpage "See Results For" Results Out Of Testing -- What Should They Be Called?

GoogleGuy confirms the feature is part of the regular Google UI in one of our SEW Forums threads, after yet again, someone was asking about them.

See results for: relentless records

Relentless Relentless logo. New site coming soon... Recording artists: KT Tunstall · Joss Stone. A&R contact: Relentless 43 Brook Green ... www.relentless-records.net/

index.html Relentless "Metal" Records. Welcome to our domain... Enter. © RELENTLESS "METAL" RECORDS. Tax Attorney · Tax Attorney. www.relentless-records.us/

As GoogleGuy notes, Google expects to have documentation up on Google's guide to its web search results pages shortly. But they don't have an official name for these yet.

What do you think of the feature? Have some suggested names? Please comment in our SEW Forums thread, Google Confirms Mid-Page "See Results For" Section No Longer A Test; Suggest A Name!

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:36 AM | Permalink

Google Confirms Midpage "See Results For" Results Out Of Testing -- What Should They Be Called?

GoogleGuy confirms the feature is part of the regular Google UI in one of our SEW Forums threads, after yet again, someone was asking about them.

See results for: relentless records

Relentless Relentless logo. New site coming soon... Recording artists: KT Tunstall · Joss Stone. A&R contact: Relentless 43 Brook Green ... www.relentless-records.net/

index.html Relentless "Metal" Records. Welcome to our domain... Enter. © RELENTLESS "METAL" RECORDS. Tax Attorney · Tax Attorney. www.relentless-records.us/

As GoogleGuy notes, Google expects to have documentation up on Google's guide to its web search results pages shortly. But they don't have an official name for these yet.

What do you think of the feature? Have some suggested names? Please comment in our SEW Forums thread, Google Confirms Mid-Page "See Results For" Section No Longer A Test; Suggest A Name!

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:36 AM | Permalink

March 28, 2006

Google Recipes! Google Careers! Google Confusion! The UI Madness Continues

Item 3 on my 25 Things I Hate About Google list was "Stop confusing people. Pick a user interface and go with it!" The past few days only prove my point, as I've seen everything from Google Recipes to Google Careers being reported as new features while others play with their cookies in order to get a green bar vertical search implementation.

Look, it's Google Real Estate!

Actually, it's just results from Google Base that are now flowing into the regular results through a OneBox display. Google said when Google Base launched that results would get integrated into regular Google.

Look, it's Google Recipes!

Look, it's Google Careers!

Nope, once again, it's just Google Base results flowing into the regular results. It's the same thing as with the real estate listing integration above, but it's confusing to those who come across these listings because Google's not given any heads-up about the new implementation.

Here's the Official Google Base Blog. See any mentions? Nada. Would it be so hard to explain that Google is more heavily testing integrating Google Base results into regular Google for randomly selected searchers? How about throwing up a few screenshots to illustrate it? Maybe put an experimental feature on Google Labs letting anyone who wants this to try it.

Nah, that would be too easy. Instead, let's just have people get all confused about what the hell is going on.

It could be this is part of a grand Google master plan. The beta strategy already works well for that double-dip of publicity. Put the product out in beta, gather up the glory, then release it from beta for that second dose of write-ups. Perhaps these non-disclosed alpha experiments are a way to triple team the coverage. Get the buzz going as a select few see these experiments and blog about them. Then do a beta. Then a final. Then move into Redmond and take over Microsoft and....

Personally, I think it's just lameness rather than a clever business strategy. Google's long tested new features by showing them select groups of people. When I've asked them why they don't disclose this testing more, it's always been a case of not wanting to mess up the "experiment" by skewing the sample.

Googlers, those days are long gone. In a world of bloggers, keeping your experiments quiet are over. For example, take the "news" of Google "new interface," as Ars Technica called it this week. Which new interface would that be? There are so many to choose from.

Honestly, as I said in my 25 Hates piece, I wish I had the time to Photoshop everything we've seen so far into a singular illustration of the Google to come. In the meantime, here's a bulletpoint recap:

Middle Of The Page Refinement: This is where Google inserts into the middle of the page results from a related -- yet different -- search than you originally did. Why? It's an experiment at query refinement. It seems to have started last August with the results preceded by a "Dissatisfied? See results for:" message. It soon changed to a "See results for" message later than month. Today, it continues on, happening for some people but not all of them and still generating plenty of confusion. I know this firsthand, because hardly a week goes by without someone posting in our Search Engine Watch Forums for help/information/confirmation that Google's doing this. We have a standing thread on the topic, created by merging multiple posts over time. Despite that, here's someone posting about it afresh yesterday. The feature came under new discussion this month when it suggested results for "ashley cole gay" in response to queries for Ashley Cole, a UK footballer. Google "Ashley Cole Gay" Results Suggestion Prompts Questions From His Solicitor covers more about this. What do the Google help pages say about this feature? Nothing. Here's the guide to Google's search results page. This feature doesn't get mentioned there. If you're trying to figure out why this happens (as Ashley Cole's solicitor was), you're stuck with the official comment Google gave me back in August (it's a test) or Google's Matt Cutts explaining a bit more on his personal blog. Suffice to say, an official mention somewhere on Google itself at this point wouldn't be amiss.
Google Groups/Google Books At Bottom Of Results: In late August, Google seems to have started putting links to Google Groups information at the bottom of the page. I think I sometimes still see that, but since mid-November, Google also puts "Try your search again on Google Book Search" at the bottom of the page.
Google Base Refinement Keywords: These came up at the beginning of January, links to take you to categories of information from Google Base. Maybe they're still out there. Maybe not. Who knows?
Google Drop-Down Boxes: Because what didn't work in 1998 ought to be good today. This is also from early January, when Google tested putting a drop-down box for different verticals on its home page.
Ads At Bottom Of Page: In mid-November, Google tested putting ads at the bottom of its pages. I just had someone ask me about these last week, so I guess for some, that test continues. Information on the Google site about it? Zilch.
Graphical Ads In Google Local: Hey, it's ads with logos at Google Local this month, following on the earlier experiment with blue pins.
Green Bar Vertical Search Test: First spotted to my knowledge in December, this is the "new" test that's got everyone buzzing this week. Credit seems to belong to Salvatore Aranzulla, who came across what appears to be a fresh batch of testing. He also explained how by changing your cookie, anyone could see this new implementation. Luca Conti translated the instructions into English from Italian, plus this site did the same, which Download Squad seems to have spotted. In the comments at Download Squad were instructions on how to paste some script into your browser to see the results. That hit Digg, which lead to simpler instructions at Google Blogoscoped and Ars Technica, if you want to see the results yourself. Just remember that you have to disable personalized search results to make them work, if you have those switched on.

And isn't that great? Now Google's got people all over the web possibly screwing up their cookies to see this experiment. It's all probably pretty safe -- if not, I'm sure someone would be screaming security concerns by now. But there's an overriding security concern that it's probably not a great idea that people are pasting JavaScript code into their browsers period. Next time, it could be some adware/spyware thing changing Google's search results (as they have in the past), but people might think it's another super-secret Google experiment and begin merrily hacking away (and getting infected) to see what's up.

Solutions?

Start talking officially about what you're doing. You've got an official blog, freshly restored after you accidentally deleted it. Tell us when you've got these experiments going. That will help those of us who care know that it really is something you are doing. It will also help us all point at something official about it. And no, it won't mess up your experiment. Few typical searchers probably read your blog. You can still experiment with them, though the reality remains, any experiment you do just leaks out as you see now. At the very least, get some more help information up about this stuff.
Let people in voluntarily. As I explained, having people come up with hacks to see this stuff is silly and potentially dangerous. Throw these things up on Google Labs as well as letting them into the wild. Let people who voluntarily want to see Google Base results inline or whatever have a way to make that happen. Two pluses here. First, you don't have the potential security issue. Second, you can isolate these people who explicitly want to play with the feature from your "control" group who really are seeing them as part of an experiment.
Pick something. What? Half-a-year of testing middle of the page query refinement, and you still don't know if you want to do it? It's absurd. Decide yes or no. If yes, make it a feature that people can override if they want. If no, then at least we can have an end to people remaining confused about what they are seeing.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:54 AM | Permalink

Google Recipes! Google Careers! Google Confusion! The UI Madness Continues

Look, it's Google Real Estate!

Look, it's Google Recipes!

Look, it's Google Careers!

Nah, that would be too easy. Instead, let's just have people get all confused about what the hell is going on.

Middle Of The Page Refinement: This is where Google inserts into the middle of the page results from a related -- yet different -- search than you originally did. Why? It's an experiment at query refinement. It seems to have started last August with the results preceded by a "Dissatisfied? See results for:" message. It soon changed to a "See results for" message later than month. Today, it continues on, happening for some people but not all of them and still generating plenty of confusion. I know this firsthand, because hardly a week goes by without someone posting in our Search Engine Watch Forums for help/information/confirmation that Google's doing this. We have a standing thread on the topic, created by merging multiple posts over time. Despite that, here's someone posting about it afresh yesterday. The feature came under new discussion this month when it suggested results for "ashley cole gay" in response to queries for Ashley Cole, a UK footballer. Google "Ashley Cole Gay" Results Suggestion Prompts Questions From His Solicitor covers more about this. What do the Google help pages say about this feature? Nothing. Here's the guide to Google's search results page. This feature doesn't get mentioned there. If you're trying to figure out why this happens (as Ashley Cole's solicitor was), you're stuck with the official comment Google gave me back in August (it's a test) or Google's Matt Cutts explaining a bit more on his personal blog. Suffice to say, an official mention somewhere on Google itself at this point wouldn't be amiss.
Google Groups/Google Books At Bottom Of Results: In late August, Google seems to have started putting links to Google Groups information at the bottom of the page. I think I sometimes still see that, but since mid-November, Google also puts "Try your search again on Google Book Search" at the bottom of the page.
Google Base Refinement Keywords: These came up at the beginning of January, links to take you to categories of information from Google Base. Maybe they're still out there. Maybe not. Who knows?
Google Drop-Down Boxes: Because what didn't work in 1998 ought to be good today. This is also from early January, when Google tested putting a drop-down box for different verticals on its home page.
Ads At Bottom Of Page: In mid-November, Google tested putting ads at the bottom of its pages. I just had someone ask me about these last week, so I guess for some, that test continues. Information on the Google site about it? Zilch.
Graphical Ads In Google Local: Hey, it's ads with logos at Google Local this month, following on the earlier experiment with blue pins.
Green Bar Vertical Search Test: First spotted to my knowledge in December, this is the "new" test that's got everyone buzzing this week. Credit seems to belong to Salvatore Aranzulla, who came across what appears to be a fresh batch of testing. He also explained how by changing your cookie, anyone could see this new implementation. Luca Conti translated the instructions into English from Italian, plus this site did the same, which Download Squad seems to have spotted. In the comments at Download Squad were instructions on how to paste some script into your browser to see the results. That hit Digg, which lead to simpler instructions at Google Blogoscoped and Ars Technica, if you want to see the results yourself. Just remember that you have to disable personalized search results to make them work, if you have those switched on.

Solutions?

Start talking officially about what you're doing. You've got an official blog, freshly restored after you accidentally deleted it. Tell us when you've got these experiments going. That will help those of us who care know that it really is something you are doing. It will also help us all point at something official about it. And no, it won't mess up your experiment. Few typical searchers probably read your blog. You can still experiment with them, though the reality remains, any experiment you do just leaks out as you see now. At the very least, get some more help information up about this stuff.
Let people in voluntarily. As I explained, having people come up with hacks to see this stuff is silly and potentially dangerous. Throw these things up on Google Labs as well as letting them into the wild. Let people who voluntarily want to see Google Base results inline or whatever have a way to make that happen. Two pluses here. First, you don't have the potential security issue. Second, you can isolate these people who explicitly want to play with the feature from your "control" group who really are seeing them as part of an experiment.
Pick something. What? Half-a-year of testing middle of the page query refinement, and you still don't know if you want to do it? It's absurd. Decide yes or no. If yes, make it a feature that people can override if they want. If no, then at least we can have an end to people remaining confused about what they are seeing.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:54 AM | Permalink

Google Recipes! Google Careers! Google Confusion! The UI Madness Continues

Look, it's Google Real Estate!

Look, it's Google Recipes!

Look, it's Google Careers!

Nah, that would be too easy. Instead, let's just have people get all confused about what the hell is going on.

Middle Of The Page Refinement: This is where Google inserts into the middle of the page results from a related -- yet different -- search than you originally did. Why? It's an experiment at query refinement. It seems to have started last August with the results preceded by a "Dissatisfied? See results for:" message. It soon changed to a "See results for" message later than month. Today, it continues on, happening for some people but not all of them and still generating plenty of confusion. I know this firsthand, because hardly a week goes by without someone posting in our Search Engine Watch Forums for help/information/confirmation that Google's doing this. We have a standing thread on the topic, created by merging multiple posts over time. Despite that, here's someone posting about it afresh yesterday. The feature came under new discussion this month when it suggested results for "ashley cole gay" in response to queries for Ashley Cole, a UK footballer. Google "Ashley Cole Gay" Results Suggestion Prompts Questions From His Solicitor covers more about this. What do the Google help pages say about this feature? Nothing. Here's the guide to Google's search results page. This feature doesn't get mentioned there. If you're trying to figure out why this happens (as Ashley Cole's solicitor was), you're stuck with the official comment Google gave me back in August (it's a test) or Google's Matt Cutts explaining a bit more on his personal blog. Suffice to say, an official mention somewhere on Google itself at this point wouldn't be amiss.
Google Groups/Google Books At Bottom Of Results: In late August, Google seems to have started putting links to Google Groups information at the bottom of the page. I think I sometimes still see that, but since mid-November, Google also puts "Try your search again on Google Book Search" at the bottom of the page.
Google Base Refinement Keywords: These came up at the beginning of January, links to take you to categories of information from Google Base. Maybe they're still out there. Maybe not. Who knows?
Google Drop-Down Boxes: Because what didn't work in 1998 ought to be good today. This is also from early January, when Google tested putting a drop-down box for different verticals on its home page.
Ads At Bottom Of Page: In mid-November, Google tested putting ads at the bottom of its pages. I just had someone ask me about these last week, so I guess for some, that test continues. Information on the Google site about it? Zilch.
Graphical Ads In Google Local: Hey, it's ads with logos at Goog