Google Makes “Related Searches” Fresher

Jun 13, 2008 at 8:56am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google announced that the related search feature is now fresher then ever. What that means is when you search on certain queries, Google may show you a line just above the search results with related search queries. Those related search queries are fresher, in the sense that they now should show more related searches based on your query but also based on current events.

For example, a search on apple returns two relates searches, including [apple iphone] and [apple store]. Yes, the apple iphone is very current with the upcoming 3G iphone, and I assume people searching for Apple at this time are also looking to find out where they can buy the 3G iPhone:

Another example is a search for john mccain, which returns [john mccain for president] as a related search. How about hillary clinton, which returns both [hillary clinton concession] and [speech hillary clinton for president] as related searches.

These examples may go away quickly because the nature of these new related searches are meant to be fresh. This also means, I believe, that you will see more related searches at Google then you have in the past. Google said this launch is for U.S. English queries but they are looking to expand it globally.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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