Google reinvents search with universal launch

Once again, Google demonstrates exactly why they earn the title ‘technology giant.’ Over the last few weeks, Google has gotten its fair share of negative press, but that did not prevent those ever-thinking code loving geeks at Google from giving demonstrations of a few new goodies that are due out soon. Launched yesterday, from the Searchology press event, Google showed off the past, present, and future (tip: try adding view:timeline to a search of James Madison) of searching. They call it “Universal Searching.”

The same Google search you all know and use daily, is still there. The launch of Universal Search means that a simple search will show results from Google’s vertical search as normal, but there is a new added layer. A small bar appears just over the results that will let you target your results quicker. For example, a search for “python the popular code,” will list the normal results plus links to Google Code, Google Blogs, and Google Groups relating to the subject as well.

“Our focus has always been making our users' search experience as simple and straightforward as possible,” said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. “The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query.” She added that while they had a long way to go the announcement was a step in the right direction.

To make the task of Universal Search possible, Google is rolling out a new technology infrastructure that will enable the search engine the “computationally intensive tasks required producing universal search results.” The company is also releasing the first stage of an upgraded ranking mechanism that automatically and objectively compares different types of information.

“Google has continued to concentrate on improving the quality of search,” said Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google. “The level and speed of search innovation at Google has increased. Most of this innovation addresses basic ranking algorithms and is often not obvious to users. Users just see more accurate results, more often, in more languages, which is our primary goal.”

Google also announced a new experimental version of its popular search service called Google Experimental. Experimental is available on Google Labs. This new test site provides users an opportunity to try out some of the latest search experiments and innovations as well as provide Google with feedback. If you want to play with the new features, visit Google Labs or click below. (You know you want too.)

Place the following in Google and search.
George Washington view:timeline
Roller Coasters view:map

Left-hand search navigation:
http://www.google.com/search?esrch=RefinementBarLhsGradientPreview&q=ipod

Right-hand search navigation:
http://www.google.com/search?esrch=RefinementBarRhsPreview&q=dancing

Keyboard Shortcuts:
Visit this link: http://www.google.com/search?q=rattle...rch=BetaShortcuts
Then use the following key:
J - Selects the next result.
K - Selects the previous result.
O - Opens the selected result.
Enter - Opens the selected result.
/ - Puts the cursor in the search box.
Esc - Removes the cursor from the search box.