Google's new search results page redesign highlights search options on the left side, in living color.

Starting Wednesday, Google users will see something very different on search results pages as the world’s leading Internet search company trots out one of its most significant redesigns in years.

Google search result pages will get a lot more colorful as Google formally introduces a redesign it has been testing for several years. It’s not a huge surprise since Google has been actively testing the design with users for several months, and testing for this particular revision dates back even further, said John Wiley, senior user experience designer for Google.

With the new look, Google is emphasizing the menu of search options that had previously been hidden on the left-side rail of the search results pages. First unveiled in May 2009, search options required a searcher to click on a “show options” link at the top of the page. Now they will be permanently affixed to the left rail, and Google will surface different search options based on whether they are relevant to the query, Wiley said.

For example, a search for “red shoes” would produce the usual set of results, but on the left rail, Google will surface a link to Google’s shopping search pages. In the same vein, a search for “NFL draft” would surface news and real-time updates on that rail. Users can access the full list of search options by clicking on “more” but will see a changing list of highlighted options on the left rail for different queries.

And those options themselves will be quite visible: Google is using strong colors to highlight those options, in what Wiley called “a modern crisp clean look.” Even Google’s logo is getting in on the act, with a subtle overhaul that brightens the colors and drops the shadowing cast by the letters.

Google's new logo, which eliminates the shadows behind the letters and uses brighter colors.

“This was one of our larger visual experiments we’ve ever run at Google,” Wiley said. The company tested different designs in the wild, with members of the public in Google’s testing labs, and its usual “dog-fooding” process among employees, and assembled enough data on preferences to put together the final product.

Google has been criticized for this data-driven approach to design in the past, perhaps most prominently by former employee Douglas Bowman, who in departing the company last year wrote “I won’t miss a design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data.”

While not responding directly to Bowman’s concerns in light of the new design, Wiley pointed out that individual designers at Google have to use their intuition to figure out which kinds of visual experiments to test before subjecting those tests to data analysis. “I think that we are very lucky at Google to have the resources to be able to run the kinds of experiments that give us great data,” he said.

Google is also changing the way search tools and search refinements appear on the left hand side of its search results page. A search for “rolling stones” will trigger a list of results under the header “something different,” which in this case would bring up other classic rock bands such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.

The changes will appear on a rolling basis to most users over the course of Wednesday, Wiley said, but could take longer for some users of Google search in languages other than English.

Source: CNET News

Google

Google’s logged 87.8 billion searches in December 2009, or 66.8 percent of the more than 131 billion searches conducted worldwide. Google hopes to grow its search and ad dominance by focusing on a convergence of mobile search, advertising and applications, including location-based technologies with a heavy dose of social networking. Smartphones as Google’s Nexus One, paired with mobile search, applications and advertising seem like a fine way for Google to extend its search dominance from the desktop to the PC. Google will pit its mobile technologies those of Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple in 2010.

Google’s strategy to “double down” on its core search business helped the company clean up as the top search property with 87.8 billion searches in December 2009, or 66.8 percent of the more than 131 billion searches conducted worldwide.

That’s good for a 58 percent increase in search query volume over the past year, according to figures released Jan. 22 by researcher comScore. These world-leading totals helped Google rake in a fourth-quarter 2009 profit of $1.97 billion and sales of $4.95 billion.

Google hopes to improve on these numbers through focusing on a convergence of mobile search, advertising and applications, including location-based technologies with a heavy dose of social networking.

Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management at Google, attributed Google’s successful Q4 to the company’s doubling down on its efforts in search, AdWords search advertising and display advertising.

“Search did particularly well in 2009 and I think that may be the best example of what we feel we can do when we double down and focus,” Rosenberg said on the company’s Q4 earnings call Jan. 21. He cited Google’s 550 search quality enhancements; a bigger and faster index; universal search expansion; and Google’s new music search service.

However, Google’s crowning search achievement arrived Dec. 7 in the form of real-time. Google indexes tweets from Twitter and public status updates from Facebook, as well as info from MySpace, news publications and blogs only seconds after the content is published online.

Rosenberg noted that two minutes after a force 4.1 earthquake struck California two weeks ago, Google’s real-time search algorithms surfaced local Twitter tweets and news reports. The idea is that retrieving this type of content will keep users coming to Google.

It’s difficult to gauge the financial impact of these real-time results, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on the call real-time search was “very successful.”

Source: eWeek

It was the kind of detail that only experts in Web traffic analysis could love, but a technical change Google is making turns out to reveal something a lot more people care about: faster search results.

Specifically, Google is trying out a new way to present search results that uses the JavaScript programming language and the related Ajax interface technology, not just regular HTML, to display the information, Google spokesman Eitan Bencuya said.

The reason: with the Ajax-enhanced search results, JavaScript is used to load the actual search results beneath the unchanging boilerplate above, a tactic that means only the search results need to be loaded on subsequent searches.

“These guys are working hard to make things milliseconds faster. They’re always experimenting,” Bencuya said.

A few thousandths of a second–trivial, right? Wrong. Google found that shaving a smidgen off the time it takes to show results means that people search more often, and more searches means more opportunities to show search ads.

To provide fast results, Google already uses 700 to 1,000 servers to field each query, so a little speed-up on the browser side of the process can be a relatively cheap way to get an edge.

OK, then, how did this all come to light? On the Google Analytics blog Tuesday, team member Brett Crosby announced a change Google plans to make to the “referrer” code that it passes on to a Web site when somebody clicks a link in the search result.

Those who use their own Web analytics software to observe how their search ads are performing–such as tracking when a Google search sent visitors to their Web site, and what they were searching for when they did–will need to update their software to accommodate the change.

It’s an arcane tweak, to be sure, but Alex Chitu of the unofficial Google Operating System blog put the pieces together on Wednesday, guessing that the change had to do with how Google presented its search engine results page.

Specifically, he dug up a March video post by Google’s Matt Cutts explaining why a Google experiment in presenting search results had shut off referrer traffic in February.

Bencuya confirmed on Wednesday that the referrer change was indeed motivated by the need to fix the experiment’s unintended side effect.

“We made this change so we can continue experimenting with different kinds of test results and not break links in the future,” Bencuya said.

He wouldn’t comment on plans to bring the Ajax change to a broader set of users.

Source: CNET News – by Stephen Shankland

Microsoft’s challenge to grow its share of the search business isn’t just a global issue. It’s also a challenge within its own walls.

Despite investing five years and hundreds of millions of dollars on its search product, Microsoft has struggled to get people to use its service, even those whom it employs. Microsoft Senior Vice President Yusuf Mehdi said the company’s share of the search market–even internally–has been disappointing.

“That’s true,” Mehdi said in an interview last week.

At a company meeting about a year ago, one Microsoft worker recalls hearing that four-fifths of the company’s search traffic was going to Google. Although he uses Live Search personally, the worker, who asked not to be named, said plenty of his co-workers still use Google.

“We are still fighting that battle,” the worker said. Among its full-time U.S. workers, Microsoft says that, for February, Live Search and Google had roughly equal share, at around 48 percent apiece, with little search traffic going to Yahoo or any of the other search players.

Mehdi said that Microsoft has won some internal support for specific products, such as its Live Search Cashback feature, which gives people a rebate on certain products purchased through its search engine. But, he said, broader adoption, even internally, is still really something that is in the company’s future as opposed to its present.

“I think some of that is predicated on us talking broadly about some great experiences and promoting it heavily, which is something I think we are going to do soon,” Mehdi said.

And, of course, Microsoft’s lackluster search share isn’t limited to Redmond. The latest monthly statistics, released Friday, show Microsoft with just 10.3 percent of the U.S. market, according to Nielsen Online, compared with 64.2 percent for Google and 15.8 percent for Yahoo. More importantly, the company had year-over-year growth of less than 1 percent compared to 16 percent growth for the market as a whole.

Microsoft is hoping that the next version of its product, code-named Kumo, will prompt more people both within and outside the company to give Microsoft another chance. The company has been testing it internally since last month, Microsoft hasn’t said much about Kumo, but several screenshots obtained by CNET News provide a glimpse.

The revamped search page shown in those prototypes focuses on several key changes, including using the left hand for navigation and refining a query as well as splitting the results into various categories. In the Taylor Swift page, for example, the left-hand navigation allows a user to quickly shift to images, songs, or lyrics by Swift. The results, meanwhile, are also split into different sub-categories.

Another screenshot, of an Audi search, breaks things down into an initial result with facts such as price and fuel economy pulled out in bold, followed by general Web results, then results by cratgory, such as Audi parts, used Audis, and Audi accessories.

The company is also expected to rely heavily on technology from the many search companies it has purchased. The health search engine from Medstory and travel engine Farecast are already part of Microsoft’s search products. The next version of Live Search, which may or may not use the Kumo name, is expected to draw on those as well as semantic search technology from last year’s acquisition of Powerset.

Mehdi said the new product reflects the fact that roughly half of all queries are actually repeats of earlier questions as well as the fact that people would like to get more out of a search query than just a link to a page that might have the answer.

“It is an awesome keyword-to-URL-mapper,” Mehdi said, referring to the search engine of today. “What it is not well suited for is cases where you are looking for more than just a URL, (if) you are looking to get some insight or you want to actually make a decision. Our interpretation of the data is there is a lot of unmet need.”

Microsoft has been saying for years, though, that search could be dramatically better than it has been. But, at least thus far, the company has failed to deliver a product that consumers feel proves that thesis to be true.

Mehdi said that the company thinks this time it may be able to make its case. Plus, he said, the company doesn’t need to persuade the whole world to drop Google. What Microsoft does need, he says, is for some vocal minority to decide its search engine is better than its rival’s.

“We need a fan base of people that love what we are doing,” Mehdi said. It doesn’t even need a lot of fans, he said, just a loyal following that can serve as the service’s champions.

But the company also needs to grow faster than it can just by working on the product itself. That’s where the company’s giant cash hoard comes in handy.

For starters, the company is reportedly planning a $100 million ad campaign to accompany a mid-year release of the product. Beyond that, Microsoft has been paying heavily to make its search engine the default on new computers and devices, including deals with Dell and Lenovo.

Mehdi didn’t confirm the ad spending or say when the new service will debut, but did say that Microsoft is putting more resources into the coming launch.

“We felt like we had enough now with this effort to get behind it and make a big push and that’s what we are going to do,” Mehdi said.

The biggest potential for growing Microsoft’s share, though, would be some sort of tie-up with its nearest rival, Yahoo. Microsoft has been pushing for a search deal ever since it failed to buy all of Yahoo last year. It has had occasional talks with Yahoo since then, although things had been relatively quiet in recent months as Yahoo replaced Chief Executive Jerry Yang with Carol Bartz.

Last week, though, it was reported that the discussions were back on again in recent months, including a face-to-face meeting between Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Source: CNET News – by Ina Fried

Google Inc on Wednesday unveiled a plan aimed at eventually letting computer users determine whether providers like Comcast Corp are inappropriately blocking or slowing their work online.

The scheme is the latest bid in the debate over network neutrality, which pits content companies like Google against some Internet service providers.

The ISPs say they need to take reasonable steps to manage ever-growing traffic on their networks for the good of all users. Content and applications companies fear the providers have the power to discriminate, favoring some traffic over others.

Google will provide academic researchers with 36 servers in 12 locations in the United States and Europe to analyze data, said its chief Internet guru, Vint Cerf, known as the “father of the Internet.”

“When an Internet application doesn’t work as expected or your connection seems flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your broadband ISP (Internet service provider), the application, your PC (personal computer), or something else?” Cerf wrote in a blog post.

The effort aims to uncover the problem for users, Cerf said. Cerf is widely known for his work for the U.S. government in designing the Internet protocol in the 1970s and 1980s.

In a precedent-setting decision last year, the five-member Federal Communications Commission voted to uphold a complaint accusing Comcast of violating the FCC’s open-Internet principles by blocking file-sharing services, such as those that distribute video and television shows.

The case became a flash point in the Net neutrality debate. Comcast is fighting the decision in the courts.

COX MAKES MOVE

In a move likely to fuel further debate, another large cable company, Cox Communications, said on Wednesday it would begin testing a plan to give priority to time-sensitive traffic like Web page views and streaming videos.

Less time-sensitive traffic, such as file uploads and peer-to-peer file sharing, could be delayed under the plan.

Cox said it will not discriminate based on owner or source of traffic.

Still, Net neutrality advocates are wary of such policies.

“The lesson we learned from the Comcast case is that we must be skeptical of any practice that comes between users and the Internet,” said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, an advocacy group.

Researchers are already using tools to test connection speed and determine if an ISP is blocking or throttling particular applications. Google’s effort will allow an expansion of that effort.

“The goal is to let consumers see what’s under the hood of their Internet connection,” said Sascha Meinrath, a wireless expert at the New America Foundation, a think tank in which Google CEO Eric Schmidt is board chairman. “Right now it’s very difficult now to make an informed consumer choice.”

Google has a business interest in keeping users’ experiences fast and efficient, said Google policy analyst Derek Slater, who reserved further judgment until he could learn more about the new Cox policy.

“Our ability to innovate still depends on end users being able to use their broadband connections to access Google. To the extent that consumers are having problems doing that, that can directly hurt Google.”

Source: Yahoo! – Reuters

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Internet media firm Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday that its mobile search service will be offered by six more telecom companies in Asia.
 
It now has 60 such partnerships worldwide, including with Mahanagar Telephon Nigam (MTNL) in India, Hong CSL Limited, Smart Communications and Digital Mobile Phlis (Sun Cellular) in the Philippines and Vibo Telecom in Taiwan. “We are now able to reach 600 million subscribers,” David Ko, Asia managing director and vice president of Yahoo’s mobile division, told reporters at a media briefing.

“This creates the scale to make mobile advertising attractive.”

He said the mobile advertising market is expected to rise to $16.2 billion in 2011 up from $1.5 billion in 2006 and that Yahoo “would obviously love to take a large chunk of that pie.”

Yahoo!