This week I am in San Jose attending the Search Engine Strategies conference. I recently picked up some great information on universal search.
I now know that I need to do a better job with images and video. I have ignored the idea of universal search for a year. Probably waiting for the dust to settle, but I am really not sure why.
Clearly the major search engines are using images, videos, news, and various other types as part of their results pages. Meaning that if a specific query finds any of those items related to the terms it will show that item in the natural search listing. The idea is that a user can get everything they need from one query.
Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience with Google, discussed universal search in her keynote conversation with Danny Sullivan on Wednesday morning. She said the new changes to universal search involved “a whole new infrastructure change” for Google, because it involved merging servers and their results together. Mayer also mentioned that currently universal search combines maps, news, images, videos and books. There is a plan to integrate all of Google services in the universal search, including blog and Scholar.
There is only so much real estate on a page. If something is added to the results that means something else has to come off. I do not want that to be me.
I learned a lot from Chris Smith on how to optimize images to get the most out of them.
I plan to have an aggressive campaign on images and video very soon. By creating these items, my hopes are I can be in many places within the search results. Hopefully, getting in early with some categories will be a great opportunity to take some prime real estate.
September 2nd, 2007 at 11:49 am
Hi,
I wish i was at that conference. And i agree, the major search engines are definitely going to or already are using a global search.
Looking forward to your review of the conference.
William Masek
letsgotraveltheworld.com