I’ve had some time to consider Google’s new universal
search that they are implementing in their search results. What I see
makes me think of this in terms of search goulash.
Mmmm! a (not-so) tasty combination of everything I didn’t
want in my search with some stuff I did thrown in.
First a little goulash
background. Growing up, goulash was a dish my mother made that was
essentially all of the week’s dinner left-overs combined into one (not-so)
tasty dish. We dreaded goulash nights, but God bless my mother, she wasn’t
willing to waste any food!
This is what universal search reminds me of. Everything that
everybody likes thrown in, but nothing that most people would find tasty.
Google realized that very few people were using their individual search areas
such as images, video, news, etc, and universal search is their
one-size-fits-all fix to that. The result is a bunch of, what I would consider
to be, irrelevant search results. I understand what Google is trying to
accomplish, I’m just not convinced this is the best approach.
When I want to buy something I typically don’t want videos,
or images, or books about it, I want a site that sells it. If I want
information, then some of those other options might be nice, but again, images
of what I want are not going to help much. Whatever search I perform I pretty
much know what type of information I’m looking for,
whether that be to buy, learn more about, watch, see, etc. Universal search is
mix of just about every type of search in one place, regardless of the
searchers desire.
Perhaps better integration of those verticals would have been
more appropriate. Google expirimental
search gets this right. Just to the left of the search results are
links to their other verticals. Maybe instead of just linking to those
verticals as seen in that link above they could provide the #1 result for each
under the vertical heading. This would provide the same basic concept of
universal search without forcing them into the main search area, while also
giving searchers more visible options.
Maybe I’m the odd man out, but when I search I know what
kind of information I’m looking for. Google doesn’t and universal search tries
to fix that by being all things to all people. The result is merely less of
what anybody really wants. And in this case, less isn’t more.
Stoney deGeyter runs a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients succeed.
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