Google Adds Menu, Plans Other Changes

Google Inc. Tuesday said it would add a new menu to its search-results page to help users refine results by a broader range of variables. It also announced an online service that compiles search results into a spreadsheet.

The services represent the search giant’s latest crack at coming up with new ways to make search results more useful to consumers. The new refinement feature will let users filter their results by a number of factors, including how new the information is. A search for a celebrity would show recent news about the person, as opposed to their official Web site, for instance. Until now, Google users saw a general view that ranked results based on Google’s algorithms.

The search options menu also lets users see their results in different visual formats, such as a graphic called the Wonder Wheel that shows topics related to a query as different spokes. For a search for “President Obama,” the feature shows spokes like “Michelle Obama” and “Barack Obama news.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 and is filed under Search News, Web Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.