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So then what is Google universal search? Well the name is pretty self explanatory,what Google plans to do, is bring you pretty much everything associated with akeyword when you look for a particular keyword. For example if you were to type in'Steve Jobs' in Google, you will notice there is a search result from You tubedisplayed among the web results. This is just the beginning of what Google is hopingto achieve, what Google is planning to do eventually is this: for example when youtype in 'Ferrari' in Google, there will be a photograph, a new article, and ifpossible a video of a Ferrari that shows up on the main page of the Google search.In either case, the intended idea is to bring not just web results that are linkbased, but truly multimedia rich results like images, videos and even recent booksthat are based on the keyword or person you are searching for.
Today June is coming to an end, and still only a handful of keywords are actuallyshowing what the Google universal search wanted to achieve, as mentioned earlier inthe article instead of making a 360 degree switch in the search engine, Google haschosen to slowly update and integrate the Google universal search results with theexisting algorithms and search criteria it is running, from what I can see, it mightbe quite a while before the impact of Google's innovation the Google universalsearch (or GUS as it is being called) will be felt.
Currently Google indexes over 220 different formats like HTML, PDF and Microsoftoffice extensions, if you notice sometimes the keyword you search for actuallybrings up a PDF document as a search result. In fact just type in 'press releasepdf' in Google and the first page results are all pdf files. This is just a taste ofwhat Google universal search hopes to do by including multimedia extensions in itssearch results. As is the case with almost all new innovations with search enginetechnologies, Yahoo too has launched oneSearch which on the surface looks similar toGoogle Universal search. However I feel Google is already a step ahead of Yahoo asGoogle's results are actually relevant and they are based on their importance (asthey should be), where as Yahoo oneSearch actually offers the first video or imagethat is associated with the keyword, irrespective of its importance to the keyword.
Comparison of Google Universal Search with other similar search engines
As mentioned earlier Google is not the only search engine that is working onintegrating various multimedia aspects into its search results, almost all majorsearch engines have or are working on versions that are similar to Google universalsearch, there is Yahoo Alpha search, Ask X and Live. All the search enginesmentioned earlier are traditional rivals of Google, and have been constantly workingon newer ways to get one up on Google, however the simplicity with which Googledisplays results has been the biggest factor in favour of Google universal search.
Lets start with Yahoo Alpha search, Yahoo Alpha (beta version) search actuallydisplays all search results in separate sections, the main search results aredisplayed in the middle of the page, and the image, video and news / Wikipediasearches are displayed on the right of the screen, so basically any search will showthe web results separately, and the image and video searches on the same page but ina separate section.
Ask X and Live search display results similar to Yahoo Alpha, the only additionalfeature that Ask X has is that it actually displays shopping links in the searchengine as well, I find the Live search map function pointless, if I was looking fora map of a particular area, I would simply type in the name of the place with map atthe end. However almost all search engines apart from Google have pretty much thesame pattern of displaying their search results, Images, Videos and other linksseparately and web results in the middle.
So essentially at the moment Google has a unique way of displaying search resultswhen compared to other search engines, the question is; Does being differentnecessarily mean Google has it right? The answer is a little more complex than that,I personally would prefer having a search engine that can separately display mysearch results, purely because I prefer clarity, however users have always claimedthey like Google because it is simpler to use, and definitely the way Googleuniversal search displays its search results is much simpler then the rest. As faras I can see, very soon Google and even other search engines should allow users tocustomize their results, and the way the results are displayed, but that is anentirely different topic.
So is Google Universal displaying search results better than similar search engines?Well that depends on who is using the search engine, if you are the kind of user whowants no frills or complications; Google universal search is the way forward, if youlike every thing properly catalogued and displayed, give Ask X and Yahoo Alpha try.
