March 20, 2007

Google Makes Plus Box Official

The "Plus Box" feature, which was spotted in November and which Matt Cutts blogged about in December, is now an official feature.

It appears at the top of search results for stock information and maps, at present, with a "+" next to a link that expands into a full stock quote and graph or map. (See an example in a search for [Apple].) Tests for a video Plus Box have been spotted, but Google does not mention them in this announcement, other than to promise that the Plus Box will be used for more types of information in the future.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:06 PM | Permalink

January 22, 2007

Google's One Box Patent Explained

Danny Sullivan detailed the One Box for specific vertical results by Google maybe three years ago.

Bill Slawski does a great job of outlining Google's recent patent application on the One Box.

This technology should be kept in the back of your mind as changes seem to be moving in that direction.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:42 PM | Permalink

November 24, 2006

Google Blog Results Search Creep

Andy Boyd found Google testing blog search results at the bottom of the Google search results. He posted a screen capture here, as you can see, it is fairly similar to how they have integrated news archive results into Google search.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:52 AM | Permalink

November 9, 2006

November 8, 2006

In The Election Results Race, Yahoo's The Winner

Like many Americans, I wanted to know what was up with the vote in the US midterm elections this morning. As a search analyst, I then wanted to know how the search engines performed in helping me find out. The results are in! Yahoo's the winner by far, but I'd still take the New York Times over it. Come along for an illustrated tour.

Google told us last month that Google Earth was all geared up to be an election guide. That's great if you've downloaded Google Earth and wanted to learn more before the election. But how about a quick, fast summary of what happened yesterday? What's Google got for us?

The Google home page is as minimal as always, no help there -- not even a special logo as in the 2004 race.

How about a search for "election results," which I think is a fair query to try. After all, using Google Trends, I can see a huge spike for that term after the last elections in the US:

I also checked the volume for just "results," and that was even higher whereas "elections" was much lower (see them all compared here). So my two queries for this test were "election results" and "results." On Google, both disappointed.

Here are election results on Google:

CNN's top with 2004 results! I know -- web search is always behind the times. That's why Google inserts that big news results OneBox unit above the regular results. Let's click on the main news link there, which takes us to news results:

Pretty bad. News about the dollar, stock prices -- but who won?!!! I've got to really work to figure this out, especially compared to the New York Times, as I'll show at the end of this story.

Maybe I head to the actual Google News home page:

Nope. I get some headlines telling me about the Democratic house victory, but it could be much better.

FYI, checking on a search for just results, I don't even get the news headlines inserted. Overall, I found Google to be a pretty poor resource.

How about Yahoo? The home page there immediately gives you some news:

If I actually gravitate to the picture and resist the pull of the search box, the "Full elections coverage" link takes me to a Full Coverage page with lots of info, including an interactive results page (my link takes that out of the normal pop-up box, but it still works great):

This is very, very nice. I can see at a glance who is ahead in the race for control of the US House Of Representatives, plus with a click I can check out the Senate or governor races. Selecting any state also gives me the information about races with that state.

I love this. It very similar to what impressed me at the New York Times. I hope Yahoo searchers found it. However, I suspect many bypassed it. To understand why, let's do that search for election results:

Similar to Google, Yahoo inserts a big "News Results" shortcut unit above the regular results, to help detour searchers into the freshest results. Of course, searcers might bypass that. If so, unlike Google, Yahoo has managed to get the CNN 2006 results page up rather than the CNN 2004 page. Nice. After that, there's Fox News 2006. But c'mon -- Yahoo's own special election results are third. This is one case where I'd totally applaud a little hand manipulation to get that to the top, especially to highlight that interactive results summary page.

Still, the web search results for this particular day at Yahoo far outshine Google. That's almost certainly due to some human editing, which is fine. Along with the sites I've mentioned, you get the New York Times politics page, USA Today's politics page, C-SPAN's 2006 results page, the ABC News politics page, CBS News's 2006 page, politics from the LA Times, then the Washington Post's 2006 results page. All of these are excellent choices. If Yahoo did human intervention to make this happen, kudos to them. You can check out a snapshot of the entire page here.

Over at Google, nothing is either timely or general enough. The Virginia state election board, California election info, assorted things dating from 2004 -- then oddly Virginia and California get another bump for their 2006 pages. Ugh. See the entire list in the snapshot here.

What happens if we detour into the news area that Yahoo promotes at the top of the page? Disappointment:

Yes, relevant news stories. And the image results to the side are kind of fun. But some hand help could have made a difference. How about a promo for that awesome election map of Yahoo's?

Let's go over to Ask, where I had high hopes. Ask has made a big deal of its special Smart Answers for the election, and they are cool. But will I see them? Yes, if I search for election:

I'd also get to this box if I went to the Ask home page and clicked on the Election Day link there:

But for election results (what I believe to be the more popular query), all I get is a small news unit:

The news unit will take me over to some news results, but like Yahoo's, these aren't thrilling. It's pick and choose through what you want, rather than any type of easy overview. As for a search on just results, that doesn't even bring back the news unit at all.

The overall web search results, similar to Google, are underwhelming. Nothing really helpful for the 2006 results pops up (see the full results in the snapshot here).

Even the special Smart Answers box, had it shown up, isn't that helpful for what I want now -- RESULTS! None of the featured links with it takes me to results.

Microsoft, what have you got for me at Windows Live Search? On the home page, nothing. For search on election results, it's disappointing old or non-targeted results (screenshot here). Unlike the others, there are no news results inserted above these. A search for just results is no better. If I specifically try a news search for election results, as with the others, there's no attempt to get me a comprehensive overview. It's up to me to review each story and hope for a good match.

Ironically, at the largely overshadowed MSN site, similar to Yahoo, I get a big election photo on the home page along with links, including one called "state-by-state results" that leads to MSNBC here. And over there is a pretty neat "Democracy Dashboard" giving me that type of overview I wanted:

It's a pity Windows Live didn't reach out to either MSN or MSNBC and do something special to point to this or somehow integrate it into the results.

What about AOL? From the home page, it's pretty easy to spot a link to a AOL election page with results for the House, Senate and more:

Searching for election results brings back disappointing Google listings in the main results. However, the new FullView column does a good job of dividing news into elections overall, US Senate coverage, US House coverage and more. And clicking on any of the "View all" links brings up the special AOL election page (see the full page here).

Now to the New York Times. I headed over there pretty much by chance. There are any number of newspapers I might of thought of off the top of my head, and usually its my original home town paper of the Los Angeles Times. But I hit the NY Times today, and boy was I glad.

Right on the home page, above the "fold" is an easy-to-spot election map. In seconds, it organized the most important information I was looking for into a way for me to know what was going on:

Drilling into the full map was even better. There, I could click on any state -- in particular the undecided ones -- and see the current situation:

Just when I was thinking "what if," I saw the "Create Outcomes" tab where I could click on a state and flip it to the Democrats or the Republicans to see how it might go with the Senate. Outstanding!

Other newspapers or web sites might have done as well with similar displays. If so, my apologies that this wasn't a review of the best election results sites. Instead, it was really meant to see how well the search engines held up as information resources for this particular news event.

Overall, I've written many times before that there's a role humans can play in search results. Today -- this was a perfect example of that. Yahoo almost certainly put some human effort into crafting results, and it was the clear victor in terms of quality of what was coming up in web search listings. AOL comes in second, again where human effort has helped its FullView listings help make up for the poor crawler-based results from Google.

In third, I put Google and Ask. Google's results were poor, but at least it floated some news results that may have helped. Ask, I was rooting for. But that Smart Answers box simply wasn't showing up for the queries I thought people were doing. Even if people were getting it for "election," it wasn't helpful to get election results. I really appreciate the effort, and if this had been for something other than actual results, Ask would have been great. In last place -- Windows Live.

This campaign of sorts is also one of those classic "what if" races. With just a little more effort, Yahoo would have had a landslide victory by getting people to its great overview page. The same is true for AOL. Ask, with just a bit more thought, could have had that box coming up for "election results" rather than just "elections" and added some links to get people to actual results. Windows Live, if it had remembered its MSN origins, might not be in last. And Google? A company that's all about organizing information might not have put in such a poor performance if it used some human power in the way the New York Times did.

Postscript: See also Case Study: Digg Versus Google News Traffic from me on my personal blog that covers how this article ultimately brought in lots of traffic from Google News from those unable to find election results there, along with lots of other data and a comparison to traffic from a top story at Digg on the same day.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:17 AM | Permalink

October 4, 2006

How Google's Q&A One Box Results Work

The Google Operating Systems blog has slides from Peter Norvig's presentation at UC Berkeley on how the Google One Box Q&A results work. He says that "Google doesn't use predefined patterns, they find the patterns from examples, as this approach is more scalable." The slides show the algorithms that detect these patterns from examples. Is it perfect? No. Ben at the Search Engine Roundtable discovered Google OneBox Q&A Adult Spam last month, in which Matt Cutts confirmed to be an issue with the OneBox extractor code.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:58 AM | Permalink

August 24, 2006

Google Maps Inline With Search Results

Philipp Lenssen spotted someone who captured Google inserting a plus sign in the search results, when you click on that plus sign, it opens up a Google Maps result. Earlier, we reported that Google displayed map results in the OneBox area. This application of the Google Maps product requires user action to click on the plus sign, which opens up the Maps result. I have tested this out on the query that generated this Google response but was unsuccessful in replicating its behavior on a Mac or PC (Firefox or IE).

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:34 AM | Permalink

July 17, 2006

Google Maps Added As OneBox Result

Rob over in our Search Engine Watch forums thread Google Maps + Reviews In Main Search Results and Philipp Lenssen reports that Google seems to have added a new Google Maps "OneBox" display for some results.

Philipp shows how a search on sf mortgage broker brings up a Google Maps like UI at the top of the results. In the past, it would have just brought up links to local results and not a full-fledged map.

I tested it out on my own company and it also brings up the Google Maps OneBox. You can see the difference between local results and Google Map results by comparing this query and this query.

The difference is huge for a search marketer because it displays only one result at the top, takes up a huge amount of screen real estate and it much more in your face the blue text links. Postscript By Danny: Brad Geddes has a very nice write-up also illustrating what a big impact this can be for a local merchant: Google adds Maps to Main Search Results.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:47 AM | Permalink

June 9, 2006

World Cup: Google Does The Logo Thing; Yahoo & Ask Have Smart Shortcuts

Google's sporting a special World Cup-version of its logo in honor of the start of the World Cup today, while Yahoo and Ask are offering special results that come up after World Cup-related searches. A round-up of what's going on, below.

Over at Google, there's new World Cup module that you can add to your personalized home page to keep up on matches and standings. The company is also promoting the new module on its regular home page to encourage take-up. ZDNet has a screenshot of that. Here's what I see from the UK:

The Official Google Blog is also pushing other ways to tap into World Cup info via Google, though most of these things are pretty generic.

Gary Price has done a recap of other things in the search world touching on the World Cup, focusing on ways to get mobile alerts in the US and in Europe and the fast facts that FIFA is offering.

Gary also spots a World Cup Yahoo Shortcut you can see here (but no Yahoo logo change, not even on Yahoo Germany). Ask is offering a similar Smart Answer service as you'll see here. Ask also didn't change its logo, but the home page shows flags for each team in the World Cup:

Click on the flag, and you'll get a Smart Answer with related info like you'll see for the US here.

Over at MSN Search, no custom answers and no logo changes that I can see (nor at Windows Live Search, either). But back to Google, they are doing some OneBox answers, like you'll see here or here.

Over at Technorati, there's nothing on the home page indicating anything special for the World Cup for those who want to track it in the blogosphere. Clearly if Niall Kennedy hadn't left, the World Cup would be all over Technorati. Niall declares his love of soccer here today (so Niall, get on your MSN Windows Live colleagues to do something).

OK, OK, the MSN portal home page is at least pointing to a two minute guide to the World Cup done in conjunction with Fox Sports. Of course, this is the same partnership whose official store can't send US football kit for kids when promise, so phooey on them. More on that, plus my own thoughts on the World Cup madness that's starting on my personal blog in In The Middle Of World Cup Mad England, I Root For The US.

Don't forget, yesterday's post US, UK Searchers & The World Cup covered some of the top searches involving footballers in the UK and the US.

Am I missing something? Comment!!! It's easy -- just head to World Cup, Search & Stuff at our Search Engine Watch Forums.

Postscript: Google Blogoscoped notes there are different country-specific logos at Google using the team colors of those countries

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:23 AM | Permalink

March 21, 2006

Google Base Creeping Into Main Search Results Page

GoodROI shows us an example of a search that brings up a Google Base search box, right at the top of the main search results at Google.com. The search that should show you this Google Base OneBox result is for homes for sale.

You should see a box below the sponsored listings that looks like this;

The "location" box is filled with my hometown automatically. The clickable link, "homes for sale" takes me to this landing page.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 5:30 PM | Permalink

March 13, 2006

Google's Showing Me NBC Olympics Box When I Search For "Loan"

A search at Google for loan brings back an NBC Olympics box with a link to Carl Van Loan NBC athlete page. Many in the U.S. have confirmed to me they see this result as well, but it is not showing for everyone. What bugs me is that a search on other popular U.S. Olympics Athletes do not bring up the same style result. One of the most popular U.S. Olympics stars is Apolo Anton Ohno but all you get are Google Images at the top. Another very popular U.S. athlete is Shaun White, but no special NBC Olympics box for Shaun either. For the search query, loan, one would think that most people are not looking for Carl Van Loan, but rather loan related services and information. I have posted screen captures yesterday at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:31 AM | Permalink

February 10, 2006

NBC Scores Graphical Ads/Promos On Google

So much for no flashy ads in Google search results. NBC Olympics Partners With Google, ESPN from MediaPost covers how NBC effectively has an image/video ad running in Google's results.

See for yourself. Search for olympics. At the top of the page is a big, big AdWords-style box saying "Video results for 2006 Torino Games," followed by the ability to actually play a video clip and a credit on the right hand side saying, "In collaboration with NBC Olympics."

MediaPost reports that NBC is providing Google the clips in return for promotion. A screenshot is below:

Click For Larger Image

OK, technically I suppose you could argue it's not an ad, since search engines have long promoted their own content above regular results in this type of way. Google OneBox results are an example of this. Here's a somewhat similar Yahoo Shortcuts example.

But the Olympic promo isn't a OneBox result or certainly doesn't follow how they've looked before. The promo is contained within a blue box that Google uses almost exclusively for ads. The only non-ad exception I know of is to warn why some results might be offensive, as you'll see here (though oddly, even that still says "Sponsored Link").

A third party credit is pretty unusual, as well. Google's travel OneBox results like here do credit third parties, but I'm pretty sure those aren't through paid deals. Plus, the links with travel are more designed to give you search options rather than promotion of the companies.

In contrast, NBC's pulled off what I think is a first, getting Google to hold its hand within an ad AND to make that ad more graphical than anything Google's had before. Remember, we've been told that everything in those blue boxes (even house ads) is paid for. So the promo feels pretty much in ad territory to me.

As for the ad/promo itself, it's nice. I think it's pretty cool for the user. It should also be noted that the video doesn't actually play, and the small video still image doesn't slow things down much.

For more on Google's thoughts about graphical ads in search results, see my past article, Revisiting The "No Banners On Google" Declaration.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:18 PM | Permalink

December 20, 2005

More On AOL Pushing Google Into Graphic Ads & AOL Promotion

AOL Coaxes Google to Try Busier Ads from the New York Times dives deeper into details that emerged earlier this week about how Google will help promote AOL as part of the bid to retain the company as a Google partner, along with new graphical ads that will be coming to Google search results pages near you.

Google is looking to promote AOL content within a OneBox display area, something familiar to many of our readers, as we've written of them in the past. OneBoxes are where Google promotes other vertical search results that may be of interest to searches, such as news listings or shopping results.

AOL isn't being promised any exclusivity or guarantee to show up in these areas, and including material from other companies isn't even a radical departure. Google stock result OneBoxes already pull from various providers, for example. You can see how that works in a search for goog and the resulting detailed page.

Graphical ads appear to be in the works for Google's search results pages, though traditional banners might not show up except in Google Image Search and Froogle shopping search. The Google home page would remain without graphics. From earlier reports, it sounds like AOL will get some of graphical space to help promote its own sites plus have the ability to resell graphical ads on Google.

AOL is also getting SEO advice from Google. What?!!! Secrets on ranking better? No, it sounds more like the SEO advice Google already gives other large companies as part of the sales pitch and support to get them to buy ads. That's semi-controversial mainly with SEOs who feel the advice Google gives may undercut their oftentimes more detailed and better advice, simply because it comes with Google's own seal of approval. It also does blur the church-and-state divide a bit.

Overall, I'm sitting back until the deal is formally announced and people are talking on the record about it. That's likely to happen today. Then I'll dive back in and look more closely at what's being offered and what lines, if any, are being cross. In the meantime, some further reading and a semi-scorecard to date.

1) OneBox inclusion of AOL content probably doesn't harm Google's reputation for impartial results if AOL isn't promised any particular placement or exclusivity.

2) Graphical ads will definitely cause some purists -- and maybe even some ordinary Google users -- to raise eyebrows and perhaps feel Google has sold out. Expect that Google may likely make the display of these an option, on by default but easy to switch off. That will help, but overall, graphical ads I'd say will be seen as a sign that Google's just like "all the other" search engines and losing some of the magic some feel it has.

3) Google Thinking Flash Ads? covers what may have been some testing in preparation of running graphic ads in search results. Google Offers Banners & Image Ads -- But Not On Google Itself from last year covers the graphic ads that Google rolled out for contextual placement. At the time, Google did say partners might also eventually show these in search results. Whether these ads would come up on Google itself wasn't addressed. I don't think Google has ever completely ruled out the idea of graphical ads, but they do seem to conflict with part of its corporate philosophy:

Google has also proven that advertising can be effective without being flashy. Google does not accept pop-up advertising, which interferes with your ability to see the content you've requested. We've found that text ads (AdWords) that are relevant to the person reading them draw much higher clickthrough rates than ads appearing randomly.

A CBS News interview last year did have Google's director of technology eschewing banners:

"The focus that Google has on our users, you know, a very slim homepage and so forth -- text ads, not banner," says Silverstein. "We do that because we don't want to go to sites with banner ads. We don't like them."The focus that Google has on our users, you know, a very slim homepage and so forth -- text ads, not banner," says Silverstein. "We do that because we don't want to go to sites with banner ads. We don't like them."

Certainly the oft-cited person who diagnosed himself as having a heart attack after doing a Google search might not be thrilled about graphical ads coming. They slowed him down during his crisis and made Google a winner to him for not having them. From what he sent Google:

On Monday morning, as I started my workday as a Web developer and designer, I felt a pressure in my chest. Being 52 years old and somewhat familiar with the early warning signs of a heart attack, I thought I'd go online and check on the early signs of heart attack and stroke. My initial quest lead me to 'Blah, Blah, Blah'" ? which is a different search site which I won't mention the name of ? "wherein I entered the search terms 'heart attack symptoms'.

As I waited for the banner ads to download, and then the content, I became more and more anxious. I turned to Google. I knew from prior experience that I could expect the quickest search results possible, and I was not disappointed. In less than a tenth of a second, the top listing led me to the American Heart Association Web page. Their easy to understand graphics and descriptions lead me to acknowledge my predicament, and I went to the local hospital where I commenced to have a full-blown heart attack.

Thirty-six hours later, just prior to emergency, triple-bypass, open-heart surgery, my doctor told me that had I had a stroke at any time while waiting for the operation, the chances were great that I would not have survived. This was a very sobering thought to me, my wife and our three sons, who thought they may have seen the last of their dad. Simply put, had I putzed around waiting for another website to display interminable graphics and banner ads, I might not be here today. Instead, I wanted immediate results, got them from Google, and for once did the right thing by going to the hospital."

I expect that if graphic ads do appear, you'll see the Google philosophy page be adjusted to structure graphic ads as being relevant in the right situation, just as Google has changed that page in other ways to accommodate portal features it has added. Google's Philosophical Ten True Things Not So True Anymore? and Google's Philosophy: Then and Now cover those adjustments more. But overall, I don't disagree with graphic ads as being useful. They can be, especially for those who are seeking to build brand. Chris Anderson had an interesting post recently on how he's using AdWords not for clicks but to build awareness. Big Guys Crowd Out Little Guys in SEM Arena; Some Branding Focused Advertisers Willing to Spend "Whatever" It Takes, Don't Hate Search, Search May Not Be From Branding, But It Will Still Pull Branding Spend, and Search Ads Used By More Than "New Breed" Advertisers are just some past blog posts that cover how brand owners are looking at search to boost their properties. They aren't necessarily crazy or irrational spenders, either. C'mon In Brand Owners, The Search Water's Fine explains this a bit more. But in short, they're looking for something other than direct conversions, are willing to spend and it's only natural that search engines will have to react to this demand.

What we don't want, however, is a repeat of the days such as when Yahoo was partnered with Amazon. Old timers will recall how every search at Yahoo used to bring up an Amazon box in the right hand column. It was ever present, annoying and quickly ignored. If AOL is promoted this way -- or if brand ads from others aren't targeted well -- they'll also become annoying and ignored.

4) The AOL deal will raise awareness of advice Google is directly giving to some major advertisers, as I covered in my earlier Google SEO Support Given To Advertisers. While that still doesn't appear to be crossing the church-and-state divide, it is blurring the lines more, something that Google may regret down the line unless it can provide more support services to everyone.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit the Google to Hold onto AOL thread in our Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:56 AM | Permalink

December 15, 2005

Google Sings a New Tune With Google Music Search

Until today, Google hasn't been a particularly useful service for finding information on bands, links to online music stores or other music related information. That's changed with the introduction of new music-oriented results that are automatically triggered when a Google web search has music-related content. Gary and I offer a rundown of the new feature in today's SearchDay article, Google Adds Music Search Feature , and also describe the music features that have been available at the other major search engines for some time.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 4:31 AM | Permalink

November 22, 2005

Google Testing Collapsible OneBox Display

Google Expand/ Collapse News Result at Google Blogoscoped has screenshots of a new Memeorandum-like ability to expand news results that show up in a OneBox display on Google web search. An experiment in progress, it seems, because I can't reproduce the same.

It also feels like a step backwards. People already bypass stuff shown in OneBox displays because it doesn't seem like "regular" web results, despite the fact that it might be more relevant that web results are for a particular query. This seems like it might make them even less noticeable. But testing will tell -- perhaps people might zoom in on them more.

Postscript from Gary: I would love to see the feedback/UI test results one the collapsable OneBox results is testing. Look, if people have a hard time understanding what Google Print was and consider the massive amount of mainstream press attention it continues to receive and the fact that most people don't click and the other links on the Google Home Page (just to check them out and see what they offer) I'm curious to know what percentage of users will click an icon that appears only in certain situation and at least from what Philipp's screenshots show, without any explanation. I doubt that Google will release the results of this test. They would be interesting to review. Sure, for the search geek, this type of stuff might be cool and useful but like I've said in the past, most people aren't search geeks. Heck, I wonder if these collapsible boxes be noticed in the first placed. Trying to convince people to do what my friend Ran Hock says and "click everywhere" to learn what's available from an engine is a challenge for many.

Of course, this might also point out what I've been saying for a long time (and now Zawodny and Battelle have also written on) that a bit of search "training" could go a long way in getting certain user groups to take full advantage of what's available. However, for these groups a little training (minutes not hours) could go a long way.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:13 AM | Permalink

October 27, 2005

Google Tweaks Web Search Features Page With Info About Inline Image Results

Since many of you follow every one of Google's move (even the very small ones), I thought I would toss out a small tweak that they made to their Web Search Features page today. The page now includes a mention of "inline" image results (from Google Images) being available in some cases at the top of Google Web Search results pages.

Actually, this is NOT a new feature but one that has been around since the beginning of the year. The page also points out the using terms like "pics [baseball], pictures [dogs] or images [bridges] in your query will almost always return images at the top of web results pages.

The concept of including inline image results on web results pages, if certain trigger words are used, is not new. Ask Jeeves has been offering this feature since 2003.

Yahoo does much the same. However, Yahoo takes it a step further and allow a small amount of natural language in the query string to bring back more precise results on image results pages and on some web results pages. Examples and more explanation here.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:24 AM | Permalink

October 25, 2005

Google's New "Travel" OneBox

Looks like John "The Search" Battelle has caught yet another Google onebox on web search results pages. This new (I haven't noticed it before) feature offers direct links to several travel databases (Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz) when you enter in city pairs. Say Seattle and Boston.

It also works for non-US destinations. However, if you want to go from Portland, Maine to Phoenix, this feature will not work for you. You get no option to change from Portland, Oregon to Maine. The default travel database is to Expedia which is owned by IAC/InterActive that also owns Ask.com. Interesting. I wonder when Ask will turn this idea into a Smart Search. Maybe they have it now but I can't seem to find it. Also, another revenue stream for Google. Travel services and Google have always seemed to make sense to me. Heck, maybe my April Fools day post about Google Jet will soon become a reality. (-: Of course, we know it's no joke that Google has purchased a 767. Finally, JB I'm right with you friend about the comments you open your post with.

Posted by Gary Price at 8:32 PM | Permalink

September 17, 2005

Results from Google Groups Now Appearing at the Bottom of Google Web Results Pages

Results from Google Groups are now visible (query dependent, of course) in a OneBox on Google web results pages. The addition is documented on the Google Web Search Features page. Unlike other OneBox results that embed relevant links from Google Local, Google Print, Froogle and other sources at the TOP of web results pages, the OneBox for Google Groups appears at the BOTTOM of web results pages. Here's an example. The Google Groups OneBox contains three direct links specific posts along with direct link to run the query in the Google Groups database. These results are also set apart with two icons. The first a balloon with a question mark inside. The other a balloon with an exclamation point inside.

Postscript From Danny: We'd seen Google experiment with bringing this in at the end of August, but I can't recall if it was documented then. I don't think that was the case, but it could have been.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:38 PM | Permalink

August 31, 2005

Google Brings Film Showtimes and Reviews Service to the UK

Google has just introduced their film showtime and review service on the Google UK site. It operates just like the U.S. film info service that went live in February.

Searchers can trigger the Google Film service on Google.co.uk, by entering the terms:

Films
Showtimes
The title of a current film

Results pages contain showtimes and a link to find reviews from various sources. Pages are designed to the searcher to quickly identify positive and negative reviews, to search "within" the reviews, and more. Google Films also shows an "average rating" that's based on all of the reviews in their database.

Film showtimes along with basic info (running times, rating, etc.) is also now available via SMS in the UK. Details and directions here.

If you're looking for info about older films, enter, film: [title] or movie:[title] into a web search box to trigger the service.

The only thing that surprised me was after spot checking reviews for several popular films, I wasn't able to find many reviews published in the UK media. I would think that this content would also be relevant to Google UK users.

Others

Ask Jeeves UK provides a "Smart Search" box at the top of web results pages with direct links to find reviews and showtimes at MyMovies.net.
Yahoo UK and MSN don't provide movie showtime/info shortcuts but both do offer comprehensive film info sites.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:43 PM | Permalink

May 16, 2005

Dictionary Spam, Meet Number Spam

Dictionary spam is when someone creates a web page that seeming has every word in the dictionary, in hopes of capturing someone who might be searching for anything. Now here's some number spam. Google Search by Number Spam from Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable describes how he searched for a package number on Google. Yep, he got the Google shortcut that leads to the UPS site. However, he also got a page promising adult content that came up because it lists a ton of various number combination. Note to package tracking companies: if tracking numbers have no spaces, it will make it hard for this type of thing to work.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:10 AM | Permalink

April 8, 2005

Searching Books at Google; Comparing Coverage with Amazon's Search Inside the Book

For several weeks I've noticed that using the trigger word "books" or "book" in a Google search always included a OneBox with results from the Google Print program. Today, P.L. points out that Google has now made this search option official with the addition of it to the Google Web Search Features page. Here are a few examples:

+ Books Dallas Cowboys + Books Geoege Bush + Books Google

I was unable (in my test, your results may vary) to find a Google OneBox that offered more than three book titles. As you also know, each publisher decides how much text from each book a user can view duing a search session.

For the fun of it, I conducted a few random searches to see if some Google Print material was also available from Amazon's Search Inside the Book. I also found a few items from the Amazon.com database and then did a search for them at Google.

Google Search: Books iPod The Ipod Companion Also SITB at Amazon.com

Ipod and Itunes Hacks No Amazon

How to Do Everything With Your Ipod Also SITB at Amazon.com

Google Search: Books Chicago + Chicago's Mansions Also SITB at Amazon.com

+ History of the Development of Building Also SITB at Amazon.com

+ Chicago Blues - by Mike Rowe Also SITB at Amazon.com

Google Search: Books Pope John Paul II

+ Pope John Paul II Also SITB at Amazon.com

+ Witness to Hope Also SITB at Amazon.com

+ John Paul II Also SITB at Amazon.com

Google Search Books Science Fair Projects

+ The Complete Idiot's Guide to Science Fair Also SITB at Amazon.com

+ Guides to Collection Development for Children No Amazon.com

+ Resources for Teaching Middle School Science "Look Inside the Book" only

Amazon.com (all titles available via Search Inside the Book) ------- + The Ultimate Montana Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia, 2nd Ed. Not found via Google Print

+ The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Revised and Updated for the 21st Century) Not found via Google Print

+ The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook : A Guide for the Serious Searcher Not found via Google Print

Posted by Gary Price at 11:45 AM | Permalink

April 7, 2005

Google Launches Q&A Service, Answers Directly on Results Pages

I've said for quite some time that search engines will slowly but surely become "answer engines" for "ready reference" or factual types of questions.

Today, Google joins other search providers by offering answers (they're calling it Google Q&A) on results pages. I've been wondering the GooglePlex would begin offer this type of service.

Answers, if available, are placed in a OneBox at the top of the results list. Make sure to not confuse this with the Google Answers service that allows you to interact with human researchers.

Google is mining open web content including material from the Wikipedia for answers versus using material from reference tool like MSN Search does with Encarta.

Ask Jeeves, who has been offering Smart Answers for two years, also mines answers from sources like the Internet Movie Database and WHO2.com Google's "define" feature (a Google Labs graduate) culls definitions, and acronyms from the open web. Here's an example.

How does Google's new service compare to what others offer. To early to say from a few sample queries but from what you'll see linked below, I see it on par with what others offer. Yes, I know it's a beta so we'll be watching closely. Here are a few (very few) examples to give you some idea of coverage. Yes, once again I know it's a beta. (:-: An * means that MSN provided a direct answer for this query. An ** means that Ask Jeeves offers a SmartSearch box for this query.

+ Capital of France *,**

+ Current President of Spain?, * Note: No Google OneBox answer. However, removing the word current from the query does provide a Google result.

+ World Series Winner 1987?, * No Google OneBox answer

+ Where is Mountain View? *, ** No mention of the California city that's home to the GooglePlex )-:

+ Where is Timbuktu, *? No Google OneBox

+ When is Labor Day 2005?, ** No Google OneBox.

+ Who is Lebron James?, *

+ What is RSS?, **

+ Where was Bill Clinton born? Note: Result from Who2.com, a source that Ask Jeeves also uses.

+ Zip Code for Evanston, Illinois, ** No Google OneBox answer

+ Who Shot Abraham Lincoln?, *

+ Author of To Kill a Mockingbird, *

Answer engines are just on the radar screens of large web search providers. Services like BrainBoost offers answers mined from the open web. We've also read about search technology from Kozoru that will soon play in this space. "Know it All" is being developed at the University of Washington.

Yahoo and AOL offer shortcuts that work by entering a "trigger" word along with a search term into the search box. In some cases an answer might be listed on the results page and in other cases a link to a specialized database is provided. Here's an example of Yahoo offering info from the Columbia Encyclopedia about the subject of television. Btw, see this post (from earlier today) about material from Wikipedia coming to Yahoo results pages very soon.

These blog posts from November and February have more about what others offer and a bit of history about placing answers directly onto results pages.

No answers just questions to ponder... Will publishers spring up who just offer verified and dynamic databases of facts ready for mining?

Actually, they already do. Facts.com is one example. They offer a web-based version of the legendary Facts on File service which is available free online from many public and university libraries. I wonder if web search providers or even search verticals might partner with this legendary "fact" provider and mine these database for factual answers. The same thing with the material like xrefer provides. This would not only provide answers but also allow content from highly respected reference publishers to find more users.

Finally, one thing is for sure, ready reference answer services will also be big winners as mobile web search continues to grow. In fact, Google Q&A is now a part of the Google Mobile service. That's cool! Recently, Answers.com, launched a mobile version of their answer oriented search vertical.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:52 PM | Permalink

April 4, 2005

Google Joins Yahoo & Ask With Direct Display Of Stock Market Data In Results

Google has joined Yahoo and Ask Jeeves and is now placing a current stock chart and other info directly into search results pages. Previously, you had to click a second time to get to this info.

For example: if you enter the ticker symbol GOOG, you'll see the current stock price plus today's chart.

Actually clicking on the GOOG link takes you to a set of financial info "tabs" with info from a variety of sources. Google has offered this information for several years. In fact, use the search syntax stocks:symbol (such as stocks:goog), and you skip web search results and instead go right to the financial info tabs.

Yahoo has already had direct display of stock charts in results, as you can see in this example.

Yahoo offers bit less financial info in the direct display, but they do include a couple of news headlines. If you begin your research at Yahoo Finance and enter a ticker symbol you'll find even more info. In fact, this is one of the resources that Google ironically draw upon for its Google's "financial info tabs".

Ask Jeeves offers Smart Search results box with a current stock chart, most of the same current financial data Google offers, and direct links for news and detailed company info via Marketwatch.com

This Google Blog posting has more including info about how to access stock quotes via SMS. 4INFO.net and Synfonic are two other services that offer stock quotes via SMS.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:01 PM | Permalink

March 5, 2005

Google's New Weather Shortcut and Similar Services

A post on the Google Blog informs us that Google now has a shortcut that provides a four-day weather forecast in a OneBox at the top of web search results page.

To use this new service simply begin your query with the word "weather" and then provide a location (U.S. only) or Zip Code. For example: Weather Chicago Illinois or Weather 90210 Google's weather shortcut is also available via Google SMS.

Both Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves have provided a shortcut/Smart Search (what Jeeves calls them) for weather info since 2003. A local weather shortcut was first introduced by AltaVista in 2002.

Btw, the weather shortcuts from Ask.com and Yahoo also provide info for major cities located outside of the U.S. A local weather shortcut is also available on some Local Yahoo!s. Examples: Yahoo! UK/Ireland Yahoo! Austalia/New Zealand

Ask Jeeves properties in the UK and Japan also offer Smart Search options including one for weather info. Examples: + Weather in Leeds + Japan Weather 4Info.net, an SMS-based info service, and Yahoo Mobile offer weather and other info for mobile web users.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:35 AM | Permalink

February 23, 2005

Google Goes to the Movies

Google has just launched a search "shortcut" to help users access local movie showtimes (U.S. only), film info, and reviews. The service is available from any Google search box or via SMS.

To find local movie listings use the shortcut "movies" or "showtimes" followed by a Zip Code or location. For example: Movie: 90210 Showtimes Seattle WA

Different Results Depending on How You Search Movie:[location or zip code] returns a detailed page of only film listings while the search movie(s) or showtimes [location or zip code] returns a OneBox on a web serp.

You can also search for a specific film. Example: Constantine 10036

It's also possible to use the shortcut to find lists of film info. Here are a few examples: movie: Tom Hanks on island talking to volleyball movie: rachel weisz movie: car chase

In addition, users may find critics' reviews by clicking on the "reviews" link or the star rating associated with each movie. Google finds reviews from the web and calculates an aggregated rating score from 0 to 5 stars. Users can search within these reviews and sort movies by rating, relevance or date. Google also generates a list of terms that were frequently mentioned in the critics' reviews

You can find details about how to use the service via SMS here. Only showtimes are available via SMS.

Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and AOL all offer movie shortcuts (reviews, showtimes, etc) in one form or another. For example, a search for many film titles in Ask Jeeves will return a Smart Search box with a plot synopsis and links to a trailers, reviews, etc. Local movie showtimes, reviews and just about anything relating to films is also available from Amazon's IMDB. Btw, have you ever noticed IMDB's very powerful advanced search tool? Wow!!!

Local movie showtimes have been available via cell phones and mobile devices for some time. Yahoo Mobile, 4info.net, and Synfonic are a few of the services that provide this service.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:54 PM | Permalink

February 16, 2005

A New Version (Beta) of the Google Toolbar is Now Available, Still No Firefox

Google has just released a new beta version of the their toolbar.

Google Toolbar 3.0 (beta) can now be downloaded via a link at: http://toolbar.google.com or via this link. If you already have the Google Toolbar installed, you'll still need to download this beta version. In other words, Toolbar 3.0 will not automatically install on your browser.

Firefox? Nope When I first learned that a new Google toolbar was coming, I figured after last week's release of the Yahoo Toolbar for Firefox, I would learn that the a new Google Toolbar would soon be available for Firefox. Well, I was wrong. Google Toolbar 3.0 (beta) is still ONLY available for Internet Explorer running Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. Google didn't provide any info about when (if ever) versions for Firefox and the Mac will be available.

What does Version 3.0 offer? OK, now that I've answered the question many of you might have been asking, let's take a look at the three new features that Google Toolbar 3.0 offers:

+ Spelling Correction A new button on the toolbar allows you to use Google's spell check technology on any web form. For example, you can now spell check your work if you use many web-based e-mail service like Gmail. (-: When you're ready to spell check, click the "check" button on the toolbar. If an incorrect spelling is detected, the word will be highlighted in red. Click the link and corrected spellings are suggested. It's also possible at this point to edit the word (a box will surround the term) or add the term to your personal spell check dictionary. If you select a corrected spelling, the term turns green and you're on to the next word. Click again to turn off the spell check. This feature should get the Google "as an operating system" people talking.

+ AutoLink This might not only be useful (or not) to you but the commercial possibilities are massive. With "AutoLink" enabled, the toolbar will be "enhanced" with additional links if Google thinks additional information might be helpful. For example, say your browsing a web page with numerous addresses on it. AutoLink will turn each of those addresses into direct links to the Google Maps database. Google currently offers AutoLinks for the following info (if it's recognized on the web page your looking at or found in other material your viewing in your browser): ++ Addresses (U.S. Only)

++ Package Tracking Numbers

++ ISBN's It's interesting to note that Google must have some type of arrangement with Amazon.com on this one. I searched for a book directly from the Barnes & Noble database. As soon as I visited a page for a book with an ISBN, the link button on the browser that was labeled "AutoLink" changed to read "Show Book Info." When I clicked on the button I went directly to the ISBN link on the B&N page. However, if I selected the arrow next to the button, the ISBN appeared with a hotlink to the book's page in the Amazon database. In this case, we're going to have to wait and see if Google will allow a user to choose their favorite book merchant or even query a libraries local catalog?

++ VIN's (Vehicle Identification Numbers) These four lookups have been part of Google's "Search by Number" feature which was released last January. Look for more AutoLink options in the future.

The AutoLink feature reminds me of (providing related links/info based on content found on a page NOT in its implementation) Microsoft's Smart Tags (with Word Documents), Vibrant Media's IntelliTXT, Gurunet/Answer.com's One-Click Answers, Blinkx, Intellext, and what Flyswat offered more than five years ago. Yahoo's new YQ! service also allows web page authors to embed tags into their web pages to find related info.

Speculation? Sure, I'm game. It will be interesting to see how this goes over. If it does, will AutoLink be a new revenue stream for Google? Will they begin offering paid partnerships to certain database publishers and/or advertisers to have their content directly accessible as an "AutoLink"? What criteria will they use to determine useful AutoLinks? I'm also wondering if Google will take the AutoLink technology and make it part of the Google Search Appliance and Google Mini products. In other words, will customers be able to create their own AutoLinks across an enterprise? Bottom Line? Plenty to think about with this feature.

+ Word Translator The third new feature included in the Google Toolbar 3.0 beta release is what the company is calling "Word Translator." With this feature activated, each word on all web pages and other material viewable in your IE browser can be hovered over and translated one word at a time. Translation is available for eight languages (French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Japanese, or Korean) utilizing the same technology available on Google's Language Tools page.

Beta Notes How long will Google Toolbar 3.0 be a beta release? Marissa Mayer, Director of Consumer Web Products at Google, told me that she was planning for a two month beta release. She also said that these new features have been available internally (to Googlers) for the past few months. Finally, if you're wondering what's the current percentage of searches originating from the Google Toolbar, so was I. I asked a Google spokesperson for some help with the answer but unfortunately they wouldn't share the info.

UPDATE: Marissa told Johh B. that the toolbar user base was "in the millions."

Posted by Gary Price at 12:44 PM | Permalink

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