It sounds familiar. We, business people aware of the latest news in the online dimension, have all heard of Google’s Universal Search. Almost one year after its launch, who actually knows whether he uses Universal Search or not?
This feature wanted to be a new way to introduce vertical search in each internet user’s journey. It wanted to be an alternative to the little “invisible tabs” showing at the top of the search box, such as image search, book search or even video search. So instead of a separate tab for a specialized area, Google blended it all and scattered the results of the search tools into the unique search results page.
Through the comparative ranking concept, Google enhanced the Universal Search in a way that it will show up only if the results are more relevant than the web search. Most importantly, it will be ranked to a certain position depending on the relevancy of the results, and not on the top of the pages anymore. That’s the blending concept.
Today, the Universal Search is part of our query results, but do we even notice when we use it?
I am like a kid. I like when things are illustrated, clearly said, and full of colours. That’s how it is now.
We’ve certainly realized that we get easier and faster to our query because the results better match our needs. We’ve also pictured that including video, images, or maps could answer our question without even having to click on the link.
This can be summarized in a better search because of a better comprehension of the web surfer’s needs.
From a business point of view, the Universal Search is also a great SEO tool. Imagine posting a video on Youtube, that would be top ranked in the pages, or even high ranking for your Industry focused blogs, or specialized e-commerce website. Not only will it increase your traffic and sales, but it will also be taken as “Natural organic rankings”, which is totally free!
So Universal Search or not, and blended information or not, all Google aims to do is to make our life easier, and it doesn’t really matter if we’ve even noticed it.
Now I can say I use Google Universal Search. What about you?
