New Google Features Shown at Searchology Conference

[ponyboy96]

For those that don't know, Google held a big conference yesterday where they displayed several new features that they are going to roll out or have rolled out. Here's a link to Mr Cutts' blog that discussing some of the changes:

[dullest.com...]

And Google Blog:
[googleblog.blogspot.com...]

[tedster]

Here's the quick rundown of what they talked about:

Rich Snippets - these are already being kicked around in another thread [webmasterworld.com]. All kinds of microformat information being integrated into the regular snippets.

Google Squared - Instead of ordinary search results, Google Squared automatically organizes facts from across the Internet. (Who's afraid of the big bad Wolfram, eh?)

Search Options - Slices and dices your search results in many new ways, including by time.

Wonder Wheel - A relatively new introduction being discussed here [webmasterworld.com]

Google SkyMap - And Android App that can tell you what stars you're pointing your phone at. Includes a GPS, accelerometer, and a compass.

[chewy]

Can somebody please start to make distinctions about where (what types of searches) these features apply to currently?

When discussing these new features at conferences, I find people concurring that much of "personalized search" etc is for consumer type items like pizza and movies and high volume consumer type searches.

Maybe we should start referring to this as "short-wide-head" (fat head?) type searches - as oppsed to "long tail".

I work primarily in the business to business space (very low conversions but very high value per new customer) and find that personalized search and these new features are fun and very interesting but don't seem to apply to my market - perhaps I'm not quite seeing things clearly yet - and I look forward to learning more.

[Robert Charlton]

None of these are Personalized Search features.

I think that except for the SkyMap, all of the above-listed Google features currently available do apply to B2B searches (I'd previously checked the Wonder Wheel specifically. It provided some interesting targeting thoughts).

For those coming... Google Squared is likely to be extremely useful in certain kinds of searches. You'll have to decide for yourself about Rich Snippets.

A lot will depend on the sophistication and curiosity of the searchers in your business area.

[John]

< moved from another locations >

Did I miss something or is this Options tag at the top of the SERPS page new?

I just checked a top converting three word phrase in Google co.uk and com results and clicked on the Options tag.

My keyword phrase is number four in the organics results, which it has been for a good while (years)

This result is not in the top 100 for an single option in the Options page.

The Wonder Wheel, is it just my market or are the results full of keywords and brand names that also figure strongly in Adwords ads?

Lots of spammy sub domains in the 24 hour, weekly and Year results. fdgrigdv.domain.com etc

If this is the new format SERPS then bye bye 90 plus percent of your traffic from Google?

Anyone else looking at these?

[edited by: tedster at 6:30 pm (utc) on May 17, 2009]

[tedster]

This result is not in the top 100 for an single option in the Options page.

If these options catch on I think most people who are using them would have been poor candidates for organic clickthroughs - so that's most likely to be expected.

But it bothers me that the SERP does not return to "Standard Results" when you do a new search - and the click that will return you to standard results, or "Reset options" is way down the list. If you're using the Wonder Wheel, it's very obvious. If you're using "Reviews" or "Forums" it's not so obvious at all.

Maybe these Options will end up being a boon for review sites and forums, eh? If we see organic traffic dwindling over time, in spite of maintaining great rankings, then these Search Options might well be a culprit. Hasn't happened yet for the sites I work with, but it's early in the game, isn't it.

[aristotle]

Should we call these search options or search diversions? Maybe the next step is for Google to turn search into a video game.

[aish1108]

<moved from another locations>

Regarding the "new set of features that we call Search Options" which Google recently introduced [googleblog.blogspot.com] as now being added to , in particular the option to display Recent results or webpages from the past 24 hours, week and year.

While I realize that these options have always been available on the advanced search page, many more searchers will be using these filters now that they are out in the open.

I was surprised to find my website not showing up in the SERPS when I filtered by recent results.

My home page is automatically updated to show new content generated from users, what's recently popular, new forum discussions and snippets from new pages. I would have though that this is enough to qualify the page as recently updated. The entire page is constantly being updated.

A similar website to mine is showing in the SERPS recent results as updated 2 hours ago. Mine is not showing at all.
The rest of my website is made up of master/detail pages. The master pages are all displayed in the results as July 2007, the day they were created. The detail pages are displayed with the day they were created.

So my question is how is it possible to get a webpage which has existed for years, like a home page of a major website, to display in Google's Recent Results?. I know it's possible because I do see a few websites showing up, just not mine ;)

Also how does Google determine what is a forum? My forum is not showing up when I search and filter by forum. It's a fairly popular forum software, Snitz Forums.

[edited by: tedster at 8:11 pm (utc) on May 19, 2009]

[Seb7]

I would bet Google have been testing the Wolfram site for ideas for the next bunch of features.

[tedster]

t's a fairly popular forum software

Does it generate Microformats [webmasterworld.com]?

[aish1108]

Does it generate Microformats?

No, I don't think it does. Do you know of any popular forum software that does? Does Webmaster World?

I couldn't find much information on how to use microformats in a forum.

Google just has info on:
* Reviews
* People
* Products
* Businesses and organizations

When Google display "3 posts - 2 authors - Last post: 20 hours ago" is that information from Microformats.

Actually, I don't think Google shows the number of post etc. for pages from my forum when they are displayed in the SERPS

[doughayman]

Gosh, there must be some well-guarded algorithm for deciding which pages show up in the time-based queries. I have some some sites that show up on the 1st page for "Any time" for certain keywords, but don't show up in the Top 10 pages for any of the time-based searches. And to make matters worse, these pages are updated nearly almost every day.

Perhaps it is a function of the percentage of the page that is being updated, that makes it eligible to be included in these new time-based queries ?

As of today, I noticed that when I select a time-based option, other than "Any Time", perform a search, close out my browser session, and open up a new browser session with Google, the time-based options reset to "Any Time"......looks like they fixed this problem, as mentioned in an above post.

[Robert Charlton]

As announced in the 6/03/2009 Official Google Blog, Google Squared is now live at Labs.

Discussion here...

Google Labs Tests Google Squared
[webmasterworld.com...]

and, experimental version here...
Google Squared
[google.com...]

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 6:06 am (utc) on June 5, 2009]