Google Expands Search Suggestions, Real-Time Search & Adds Refinements To Local Searches

The Google blog posted their weekly, “this week in search” announcing small but important changes released on Google search. They include expanding the search suggestions user interface internationally, adding more language support to real-time search, adding refinements to local search queries and introducing lists for bookmarks.

On Google.com, Google used a boldface for search suggestions, moved the “Google Search” and “I’m Feeling Lucky” buttons in the box and removed the the result counts a while back. Now, this interface and behavior is the default behavior for all Google international properties. That means it is available on 50 languages across all Google’s 170 domains.

Last week or the week before, Google began rolling out support for real-time search in more languages. This may not have been noticed by English-speakers, but it is something Google has been working hard on. Now, real-time search will be available for hot topics and trending topics on 40 languages.

Google is rolling out local search refinements. That means when you search for a local type query, Google may show you search refinements for that query. Google said the are rolling it out in the next couple days for 200 U.S. cities and will continue to expand them over time to more cities. Here is a picture of what the refinements look like for a search on [Maui]:

Finally, as we reported earlier this week, Google introduced bookmark lists.