Google set to update search options
Updated on 13 May 2009
Google is about to add more features to its already dominant internet search engine.
Some of the changes could give web surfers less reason to click through to other sites.
That scenario might upset the creators of the material highlighted in Google's results, it has been suggested.
For instance, one of Google's new tools will assemble the work of other web sites into a spreadsheet-style format.
Unlike Google's traditional search results, the spreadsheet experiment, called "Google Squared", doesn't simply show a set of weblinks related to a search request. Instead, it fishes through Google's massive database to organise pertinent facts and other content in rows and columns.
In a demonstration that was webcast, Google showed how a search request made about small dogs through the Squared tool will display pictures next to extensive descriptions about different breeds, on Google's own site. The content was imported from other internet destinations.
The Squared results show where the information originated, so people can still quickly go to the original source, said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice-president of search products. She emphasised Google is trying to keep its millions of users happy by helping them make more "informed clicks".
Google already is under attack by newspaper publishers who contend the company unfairly profits by showing headlines and story snippets pulled from their sites. Mountain View, California-based Google maintains that its practices adhere to copyright laws and that it provides ways for newspapers to block their content from being indexed by its search engine.
Other revisions coming to Google will include more details, or "snippets," posted under weblinks in the search results. And there will be new options that will enable users to confine the results to a specific time period or category, such as product reviews.
The changes are expected to roll out in phases during the next few weeks.
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