Google Websearch Redesigned

Google will roll out its redesigned search page today, and Indian users should see the change after 8 PM. Some believe the reason Google has gone in for a redesign to be an answer to Microsoft Bing and its vivid interface and left-panel filters, while others believe that this change is prompted by Yahoo’s recent tweaks to its own search filtering.

Perhaps it is a combination of both, but the need to provide relevant results is more apparent than ever, in the face of new social networking trends, the new ways in which information is shared, and the many new types of media and content to be found today. The ultimate aim for search engines remains to provide the most relevant results, and to understand the intent apart from the context of the search query. User specific results, and searches based on a user’s preferences and search history are also slowly becoming the holy grails for search engines.

Along with a refresh to the look of the search engine, dubbed as Google Jazz UI, Google will also introduce new layouts and technologies to give its users a more modern and fine-tuned experience.

Design/Layout changes:
a. Newer brighter logo
b. Colourful search filter icons
c. Category-wise homogeneity/unification

Technological/Search changes:
a. New algorithms for search refinement based on search category/query, including:

• i) New image filters of colour, type and size
• ii) New blog timelines up to ten minutes ago
• iii) News timelines for the last hour
• iv) Books timelines for the past century

b. “Something different” tool, for search expansion and cross-referencing

Check out this video to see Google’s take on the changes, and read Google’s Official Blog on what it calls a “spring metamorphosis” :

Google’s Nundu Janakiram, a Search Product Manager, had this to say about the changes to the site: “The web is continually evolving and adapting, users are continually evolving and adapting, and the search engine needs to do the same…The driving force (behind the redesign) is continuing to find relevant content for the users. We needed to make sure the stuff we were showing in the left-hand panel was relevant to a particular search.”

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