Google Universal Search is a way that Google “blends” results from “vertical” search engines like Google Images or Google News into its web search listings. Google Launches “Universal Search” & Blended Results covers the launch of the system in May 2007; Google Universal Search Expands covers how it grew in 2008. Both provide good background for understanding the system today, as does Search 3.0: The Blended & Vertical Search Revolution. Below are articles with the latest developments with Universal Search.

Study: PLAs Buck Post-Holiday Trends For Google Shopping, Traffic Nearly Doubles in Q1

May 3, 2013 at 10:42am ET by Ginny Marvin

The momentum of Google's PLA program didn't slow after the holidays. After seeing Google Product Listing Ad traffic jump 82% in Q1 over Q4, CPC Strategy followed up its latest quarterly review of top CSEs with a closer look. The agency hadn't been surprised to see the 87% increase in PLA traffic in Q4 over Q3 as Google's pay-to-play program ramped during the holiday season. However, the huge traffic spike from Product Listing Ads that occurred after the holiday shopping rush did catch them by surprise. Bucking the typical trend of CSEs (and e-commerce in general), paid Google Shopping traf [...]

Google News Sources Grow 15% In 2012 & Continue To Climb With Patch.com In The Lead

Apr 30, 2013 at 11:44am ET by Amy Gesenhues

After seeing a 15 percent increase in Google News sources last year, a recent study conducted by SearchMetrics discovered that a majority of the News integrations displayed in Google Universal Search results are coming from AOL-owned Patch.com. Analyzing several hundred thousand keywords, the study found that Patch.com made an appearance in the News integration results 4,352 times, followed by HuffingtonPost.com which made a total of 3,530 appearances. According to the SearchMetrics study, the top ten sites to appear in Google News integrations were: Patch.com HuffingtonPost.com Go. [...]

Google Shopping Visibility Plunges In “Universal Search” Results; Video Stays Dominant

Mar 29, 2013 at 9:00am ET by Amy Gesenhues

Findings from a new study show the visibility of Google Shopping in Google's "Universal Search" results dropped significantly after the search engine implemented a new paid inclusion model. Video content also dropped but still remained by far the most dominant source mixed with web page listings. Searchmetrics, a provider of search and social analysis software, conducted the study by analyzing millions of listings to evaluate Universal Search results for videos, images, maps, shopping and news. Google implemented Universal Search in 2007 to offer an improved search experience for users [...]

Google Shopping – The Balance Between Old & New

Aug 9, 2012 at 12:20pm ET by Jim Yu

One of the most talked about changes introduced by Google on May 31, 2012, is the launch of a paid program from Google Shopping based on Product Listing Ads (PLA). Since its announcement, we have seen a huge change in shopping results. Google Shopping listings replace the current Google Product Search listings, which are part of the organic search listings. In this post, I will explain what Google Shopping is all about, how it affects retail merchants and outline steps to mitigate the impact and seize opportunity. The Old Model Since 2002, Google has been listing relevant products whe [...]

What Wins In Google Universal Search? Videos, Images & Google!

Jul 28, 2011 at 2:16pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Searchmetrics has conducted a data analysis on what type of content appears most often in Google Universal Search results, as well as which sites are most visible in them. Video and image content wins, as does content hosted on Google's own properties. Universal Search Loves Video, Images The most revealing data from the study, which the company provided to us and which may appear on its site soon, is that having a video is one of the best ways of showing up in the top results at Google. The chart below shows up videos are by far the most found results in Google, with image content a di [...]

Official: Google Removes Auto-Background Feature

Jun 10, 2010 at 1:46pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Confused about why Google was showing a picture on its home page today. Apparently, plenty of people were, some to the point of being upset. In reaction, Google's dropped the feature. Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience, confirmed the change via an update to the official Google blog post that originally announced the new feature: Last week, we launched the ability to set an image of users’ choosing as the background for the Google homepage. Today, we ran a special "doodle" that showcased this functionality by featuring a series of images a [...]

Meet The New Google Look & Its Colorful, Useful “Search Options” Column

May 5, 2010 at 12:00pm ET by Danny Sullivan

After months of testing, Google is releasing a new look-and-feel for its search results today, a three column design that provides a permanent menu of search options and tools to help searchers refine their queries. Google also gains a freshly-updated logo along the way. The new user interface -- UI for the tech crowd -- places search options into a column on the left-hand side of the search results page. Search results themselves appear in the middle, in a wider column. Ads appear in the right column, though some ads continue to appear in the middle column above editorial picks: [...]

Google Showing Shopping Results Without Explicit Search Intent?

Apr 7, 2010 at 9:20am ET by Barry Schwartz

The tnooz blog reported that after searching for [hotels] off the Google home page, he was shown hotel room prices directly in the search results. Here is a screen capture: Now, we know Google was testing hotel prices in Google Maps via AdWords but these are prices directly in the organic results. How is this possible? If you look closely, you will see that the search results come from a shopping search filter that was set to on. Tnooz blog said that Google automatically set the user to the shopping search results, without the user requesting for this to be specifically on. Th [...]

Google Adds Universal Results To Suggest & Quick Scroll In Chrome

Dec 11, 2009 at 1:57pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Google announced they added universal search results directly in Google Suggest and a "quick scroll" feature as a Chrome extension. Here is a picture of weather results, a form on Universal Search, directly in the Google Search box: I personally do not see it yet, but I am sure it will show up soon. The Quick Scroll Chrome extension will help you locate the keywords on the page you clicked on from the Google search results page. Here is a picture of how that looks: [...]

Google Mobile Search Adds Universal Flavor To Arabic & Hebrew Searchers

Aug 27, 2009 at 9:45am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Google Mobile blog announced that Arabic and Hebrew mobile searchers are now able to see universal results directly on their mobile devices. Although not related, this comes soon after Google Translated recently added 9 new languages. I know a bit of Hebrew, so I tried to test out the search results on Google Israel on my iPhone. Unfortunately, I did not see the same mobile friendly results, with universal search, on my iPhone. Maybe it was related to me searching on my iPhone or searching in the states, I don't know. What it should look like is: What I see on my iPhone: [...]

Report: A “Caffeine” Infusion Would Mean Ranking Changes On Google

Aug 26, 2009 at 10:22am ET by Greg Sterling

Search and online marking firm 360i published findings from a small but structured test of how the "Caffeine" search infrastructure changes could affect results and ranking on Google. As Vanessa Fox wrote when Caffeine went public earlier this month, there apparently would be a number of changes in the ordering and content of results. As she observed in that post, "Google Caffeine will cause quite a kerfluffle in the web developer and search engine optimization world and many will dive in to try and figure out the changes." This is precisely what 360i has now tried to do. The company evalua [...]

The Next Decade: Can Google Stay On Top?

May 7, 2009 at 8:59pm ET by Greg Sterling

There's a feeling in the air of change -- from one era to another and, more precisely, from one type of media culture to another. The hearings on Capitol Hill yesterday on the "future of journalism" reflect this transition in which traditional media are under intense pressure and fighting for their lives in some cases. These changes are not simply being brought on by the recession but by the pace of technology development and the corresponding tectonic shifts in the consumption of media. Just as Microsoft was and is synonymous with the PC, Google has come to be synonymous with the internet [...]

Google Confirms & Talks About Expanded Local Results

Apr 6, 2009 at 4:27pm ET by Matt McGee

In a blog post today, Google confirms what we and others reported last week -- they're now showing local results on non-local queries. Google says they're guessing the searcher's location, "in most cases" by using your IP address. As I pointed out last week, this isn't always the most accurate solution. And, as Greg Sterling pointed out, Google will eventually replace IP-targeting with improved triangulation/GPS right in the web browser/device you're using. Meanwhile, Google Software Engineer Jim Muller replied to the questions we emailed last week when I wrote the original article on th [...]

Google Showing Local Results On Non-Local Queries

Apr 1, 2009 at 1:55pm ET by Matt McGee

Google is rewriting the local search space. They're now showing local search results -- a map, business listings, and more -- even when searchers use generic terms that don't include a local word. This was spotted in London last week, written about on Saturday by a California florist, and spread widely yesterday when Mike Blumenthal wrote it up on his blog. This has potentially huge implications for searchers, local business owners, big businesses with a local presence, and search marketers, too. As I wrote on my own blog yesterday, Google is changing the game where local search is concerne [...]

Google Expands AdWords Fav Icon Test

Mar 30, 2009 at 10:12am ET by Greg Sterling

Earlier this month we reported on Google's test of favicons in Germany and Poland in AdWords. Subsequently I was alerted by someone in email that this was happening in the UK as well. Dave Naylor noticed it today in the UK and has some screenshots. I was unable to find any conducting various searches on Google.co.uk. In addition Blastmodo found them in AdWords in the US: Source: Blastmodo Previously Barry also noticed favicons being tested in organic results. So why is Google doing this? A cynic would respond it's to boost CTRs, which the Checkout icon has reportedly done in ma [...]

Google Tests New Maps In Search Results

Feb 9, 2009 at 9:03am ET by Barry Schwartz

Mike Blumenthal reports seeing Google test a new type of map within the search results listings. He said he is only able to trigger this map to show using Firefox with the Google Toolbar installed. So his theory is that Google is testing some geolocation technology in the Firefox toolbar. I personally cannot reproduce it, but I trust Mike is seeing this. Here is a screen capture of one such result: Others reportedly have seen this type of map embedded within specific listings a month or so ago. It would make sense for Google to show maps in some cases, when you are looking up a spe [...]

Google Offers A Peek Into Its Internal Eye-Tracking Studies

Feb 6, 2009 at 4:46pm ET by Matt McGee

There's an interesting post today on the Official Google Blog that gives a glimpse inside the company's usability and eye-tracking studies -- tests that help Google determine what their search results pages should look like. The image above, for example, shows how users interact with a standard results page with 10 links. The deeper colors up top, Google says, show that most people found what they were looking for in the first two results on the page. No surprise there, but in May, 2007, when Google introduced Universal Search to its interface, marketers began to wonder how the addit [...]

Want To Rank Tops In Google? Do YouTube Videos, Stupid!

Jan 9, 2009 at 11:26am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Forrester Blog published a small but interesting study on how you can improve your chances, by 50 times, of showing up at the top of the Google search results. Their tip? Utilize Google's Universal Search by creating videos. Not only does Forrester share statistics and analysis on how to improve your odds with videos, but they also share tips on how to improve your video's chance at being the top video in Google web search. Let's first discuss the odds. The blog post showed that a video has a "11,000-to-1 chance of making it onto the first page of results." If you compare that to [...]

Marissa Mayer Denies Rumor She’s Leaving Google, Comments On Search Being “90% Done”

Jan 5, 2009 at 9:55am ET by Greg Sterling

In some ways the "future of search" is a tired topic that has already seen hundreds (maybe thousands) of speculative articles. But it's also a topic of critical importance for search leader Google, whose entire franchise is built upon doing it better than anyone else. Just as Microsoft didn't anticipate the rise of search and search advertising and Google didn't anticipate Facebook, it's possible that something as yet unknown could displace traditional search's (and Google's) centrality in the internet experience. Citing her blog post on the future of search, the UK publication TechRadar us [...]

Blogger Image Thumbnails In Google A Bug?

Dec 29, 2008 at 8:35am ET by Barry Schwartz

Steve Rubel reported seeing an excess of what he calls "Blog Thumbnails" in the Google search results. In short, when you do certain searches, Google may show little thumbnail alongside the first set of results. For Steve, this has been happening for "blogger's name and some other related keywords." Personally, I have been seeing these types of thumbnails for a while, but they only have come up for me for very specific searches, so I assumed it was a smaller bug then it really was. Google's Matt Cutts has commented claiming this is some sort of bug and he has reported it to the right peo [...]

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