Google Showing "Tools" at Top of SERPs

[engine]

This may not me new, but it's just started showing up for me.

Upon doing a search i'm now seeing on SERPs, to the right of "More" menu, theh word "Tools"
Upon clicking, I see a new dropdown showing "Any time and "All results"

"Any time" is an option to select a search based on, for example, "Past Hour", Past 24 Hours", "Past Week", etc.

"All Results" is shows two option of "All results" or "Verbatim."

[not2easy]

It must have been in the works for a while. Since around the end of last year I have been unable to do any 'verbatim' searches and now it is back, under tools as you found.

The same 'tools' are once again available here on the forums' site search using Google. It has been maddening to have a general idea of the time frame of a specific topic and unable to select any of the old 'time' limits. Definite usability improvement with their return.

[JesterMagic]

New to me as well.

[engine]

This is a great little tool to use, and has shown up some interesting pages.

[robzilla]

I think it's been there for a long time? It used to have "Settings" to its left but that was moved to the cogwheel. Before that it was called "Search tools".

What's new (for me) is that it's now a button, at least when hovered or clicked.

[lucy24]

If I hadn't known to look for a dropdown, I would never have seen it, because the two options display on top of the row of buttons that scroll across the top of the screen in a SERP page*. (And how long have THOSE been around? The ones that say “You’re too dim to think of the exact name you’re looking for, so here is a list of buttons** giving our favorite choices.”)


* File alongside “PIN number” and “ATM machine”. Or, for that matter, “the hoi polloi”.
** One of which doesn’t in any way shape or form fit in with the category they’re ostensibly matching; go figure.

[rustybrick]

Pretty sure that is super old...

[engine]

Pretty sure that is super old...

I have never seen it before, so it could be a new regional introduction, or even browser-specific, too.

[aristotle]

Two other options for conducting a google search:

Google Advanced Search:
[google.com...]

!00 Results per page:
[google.com...]

Both of these have been available for at least 15 years.

[rustybrick]

I looked back at screen shots from years ago, the "tools" option is there in the US, not sure about the UK.

[No5needinput]

I've used the tools/sort by date button for years

[Robert Charlton]

As I see the above comments and compare them with my own experiences, I'm thinking that this sounds like typical Google testing behavior... that all of the above, including apparently contradictory behaviors, may have been correct at one time or another, in various combinations and names.

I do think I've been seeing... in the last six months so... that Google has been experimenting a lot with user-facing controls, perhaps also in conjunction with deeper algo layers. For me, the Tools option has been around for a long, long time. What's under that option from time to time has changed.

I've definitely seen exact-match responses for searches in quotes disappear and come back again. I will confess that when quotes weren't eliciting exact matches, I didn't look for "Verbatim", so I can't say whether this might have been something like preferences for alternative commands being tested (assuming, ie, that testing is what was going on).

There's also been an interface feature, related to words in quotes, that's been around for several years now... where Google is returning searches without specific words that were in a query... but then asking whether the searcher is really insisting on that word or not. Eg...did you really want dependable... and if you choose 'yes', the interface will add quotes within the query (ie, in this example would put quotes around "dependable" in the search box). If I remember correctly, that word in quotes may or not then change what's returned, as if that interface choice is more a preference than a requirement.... I'm thinking that it may be that other factors in the search can't be satisfied with the exact word in quotes included, since query rewriting is also going on... and/or it may be that this is a test for query rewriting thresholds as well.


To say the least, it seems that the format the serps will take has varied recently more than usual, which leads to some complete speculation here that I'd be remiss not to mention...it's almost as though Google has been making some very basic changes in how its algo works, in conjunction with its search features... iteratively testing and then comparing, and continuing only after evaluation. While Google may simply be testing how searchers are reacting to various interface configurations, Google generally doesn't waste the opportunity to test multiple factors at a time.

[lucy24]

Based on some searches I attempted to do yesterday, in my neck of the woods they are currently experimenting with entirely ignoring the - operator (“find pages about widgets that do not contain the word ‘foobar’”).

[aristotle]

From Google Advanced Search:

exact word or phrase:
Put exact words in quotes: "rat terrier"

any of these words:
Type OR between all the words you want: miniature OR standard

none of these words:
Put a minus sign just before words you don't want: -rodent, -"Jack Russell"

Quoted from Google Advanced Search [google.com...]

Also, at one time you could make sure that a particular word or phrase is included by putting a + in front of it. But when google launched its GooglePlus debacle, it announced that the + operator had been discontinued. But now it appears to be working again.