Google Announces Universal Search

Most of us have used Google Search over the years, and it’s safe to say most have been content to do so. Until now. Now we want more – without putting more effort in. We don’t only want the standard set of links displayed ten at a time. We don’t want to have to physically enter the same search term on a subdivision of the main engine (news, images, video, etc.). We want things to be easier to use and yet more powerful at the same time.

For a period of time, Google hasn’t had to answer such demands. They’ve offered products that, overall, have been good enough. Never perfect, but rarely - if ever - terrible. Now they have to respond. And they have, with a product called ‘Universal Search.’

It’s nothing new, really. Underneath is still the same engine Google has employed since, well…since a long time ago. Within Universal Search, however, everything – the bevy of Google Search sites, from Books to Local Search to Video – comes together. (Think Yahoo! Alpha, just with a more natural look and feel to it.)

Universal Search is Google with less hassle, which equates to something really quite wonderful. Nothing groundbreaking, no. But definitely much appreciated.

The multifaceted engine is smart, too. If no clear links can be made between a search query and items catalogued by the various sites around the Googleplex, those sites are omitted from the results page(s), allowing Google to look as much like Google. That may be unimportant to some, but familiarity alone is bound to make many regular users very comfortable with a transition to Universal Search.

To conclude, I go back to what was said before. Universal Search is inherently nothing new, but the fact that it makes searching the Web less of a hassle for the user and that one needn’t learn anything new, shows that Google has thought this release through and through.