Google Is Enhancing Its Users' Experience

"Bing Inspired"

It was several months in-the-making before Google officially unveiled the new page design. Several search engine watchers dubbed is at as "Bing look-a-like" since it uses a similar interface of Bing. However, Google's new interface has features that are obviously different from Bing.

Google's new design has been somewhat compared to that of Ask, Microsoft, and Yahoo! as well. Google has implemented a three-column layout like what other search engine have been using beforehand. Remember that Ask.com adopted this format with the launch of Ask 3D last 2007 while Bing and Yahoo! Search made their changes on 2009. It looks like Google has joined the bandwagon of using three-column pages. But, as you will find out later, Google offers you something unique and more innovative. According to Google, they have only decided to implement this now while their competitors have been already doing it for quite a while because their technology has just become powerful enough and relevant enough at this point that it deserves to be on the results page.

There were actually rumors that the changes went live prematurely for several months, with some users saying they saw "apparitions" of the new interface. Apparently, Google has tested this out sporadically and did not go live to all users. The company had been tweaking and testing this out since the beginning of the year and they were requesting for feedbacks from users who were able to experience the trial runs before deciding to go live officially.

To the Left, To the Left

One obvious addition to Google's new look is the left-side menu with tons of relevant search tools to filter your searches. The search results themselves now appears at the much wider center panel while advertisements are placed to the right panel, with some ads occasionally appearing in the center panel above editorial ads. Their new interface, given that it has more sections, is still much organized and not distracting. The distinct minimalistic feel and color choices of Google are still there, yet more modern and quirky.

Google Power

According to Google, their three existing technologies are powering the left-side navigation panel: Universal Search, Google Squared, and Search Options Panel. Google's Universal Search helps you locate the most relevant types of results for your topic. It allows you to select a particular type of results and switch among the different types effortlessly. The Search Option has expanded to allow you to get a better view of results. You can now get the most relevant information based from the most recent content out there, or you can now focus your search to one genre of results. Google Squared helps you locate and compare entities that are related to your search, allowing you to discover and explore not only the results for your given search but also other related areas.

The New Menu

This new Search Options column provides users the opportunity to refine their searches more specifically and elaborately. The Search Options column is divided into three sections.

The top portion offers a list of the different categories of search results a user can narrow down to: Images, Maps, News, Videos and other specialized searches. If you notice, these are the same filters that were already present on top of the page, and in fact they are still there. However, using the left-hand navigation offers more remarkable ways to filter your search results by content type. You can now search for Blogs, Books, Discussion, Updates and more for your given query. So, for instance, if you search for "cars", Google will return different kinds of search results such as web pages, images, and video matches, all nicely blended together in the same search options column. Moreover, you will be able to select from new filtering options, like sorting the images by size, type, and color.

There is also a default option " the "Everything" option " where Google gives you all relevant search results, regardless of the content type.

The search options column will narrow down the type of results you want to appear. For example, suppose you search for "cars" and then clicked "Images." Google will return a page full of pictures related to that query " sports cars, concept cars, old American muscle cars, and even images of Lightning McQueen, the main character in Disney/Pixar's animated film, Cars. Other choices also offer various changes in your options. For example, when you choose "Videos," you can sort by duration, quality, the time the video was posted, etc.

Another noticeable feature in the search options column is that the order of which content categories appear will depend on the topic you are searching for. What "aurora borealis" will return a different order of search categories from, let's say, searching for "NASDAQ." In this case, Google presupposes that if you search for information about aurora borealis you are more interested to look for beautiful pictures and videos of this natural phenomenon, thus your first two search categories will be narrowed down to Images and Videos, while if you are searching for results about NASDAQ, Google assumes that you are looking for written news, supplementary information, statistics and industry analysis, thus your first two options will be News and Blogs.

Next, the Search Tools section is the second and middle portion of the left-hand navigation, which allows you to filter search results within a content category based on time or on other relevant filters. As with content types, the type of filters that will appear will also depend on the type of search query. For instance, when you search for "Dow Jones," the left panel will show "Latest" and "Past 2 days" as time filtering options. It makes sense that Google assumes you want the latest news and trends about the stock market and Dow Jones indexes. On the other hand, if you search for "Amazon Kindle," for example, the time filter options will also appear. But, additional shopping-related filters""Fewer shopping sites" and "More shopping sites""will appear as well since you might also be looking for shopping information about Amazon Kindle.

As mentioned earlier, there are now time and date-related filter options on the left panel. This is not an entirely new feature for Google, but their inclusion on the left side is something new. You can search for the "Latest" results of your query, results during the past 24 hours, past week, month, year, or even a custom time range.

Furthermore, you can now filter and select how you view your search results other than the Standard View. The View Options now includes "Related Searches," "Wonder Wheel," and "Time Line." The Related Searches option allows you to see a list of searches related to your original query at the top of the search results. Next, Timeline serves results related to your query based on a historical timeline. It follows the particular dates on relevant web pages to list them in chronological order. Timeline also presents you a chart to follow. Lastly, the Wonder Wheel option presents a unique view with your search keyword in the center of a circle of links that stem from it, forming a wheel-like diagram and the list of web pages on the right hand side instead of advertisements. Clicking to a new topic causes the current wheel and search results on the right to change.

Lastly, the last and bottom section of the search options column is the "Something Different" section. This portion gives out suggested keywords that are related to your original query that you could explore. For instance, if you search for "iPod", Google suggests related keywords like "Zune," "Creative Zen," "iPhone," and "iTouch."

Don't Worry, the Changes Won't Affect Rankings

The change in Google's user interface doesn't mean any subsequent changes in Google's algorithm. Thus, the order of actual results is still the same as before. If you're a site owner or an SEO, just relax; the changes won't affect your search rankings. Google is just thoughtful enough to offer its users a new look and feel of its results page, and ultimately, a better Google experience.