Google Universal - the next big thing in search
Thursday, August 16, 2007
In May this year (2007) Google announced the arrival of Google Universal, a new way of integrating search results to combine images, video, maps and regular search results all on the same result page.
If you’re not taking notice of this new development, you’ll be left behind when it rolls out of beta and into the mainstream results.
I was at a SEO/SEM conference last week and was lucky enough to lunch with Bruce Clay (one of the world's top SEO people) - he speaks with Matt Cutts every other day (Matt Cutts is Google's principle "webmaster SEO" spokesperson: www.mattcutts.com). Google intends to fully roll out Universal Search this time next year, although it's already in beta phase. Here's an example of what we'll all start seeing more of: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=darth+vader&btnG=Search
Google is already displaying more images and video (so THAT'S why they bought YouTube for a squillion bucks), and maps (for local search) so that a user's search experience will be fully catered for when they visit Google. Bruce also said Google was rolling Google Universal because Google has very 'unsticky' pages. Even though Google gets a ridiculous amount of traffic each day, time spent on their site is very low. They're hoping that with content from Google Video and YouTube imbedded into the search results, people will spend more time on site and have more chance to click on Google Ads (where Google makes most of its money).
Bruce said that from an SEO/SEM perspective we should be getting our clients to think about providing more video content - creating it, posting it on YouTube, link to the video heavily so that it has a strong chance of appearing at Google for search results (not just at YouTube). Companies who do this now will have a real head start when Google Universal rolls out in earnest.
It’s not much fun playing catch up.
Chris Thomas, Search Engine Optimisation Specialist
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If you’re not taking notice of this new development, you’ll be left behind when it rolls out of beta and into the mainstream results.
I was at a SEO/SEM conference last week and was lucky enough to lunch with Bruce Clay (one of the world's top SEO people) - he speaks with Matt Cutts every other day (Matt Cutts is Google's principle "webmaster SEO" spokesperson: www.mattcutts.com). Google intends to fully roll out Universal Search this time next year, although it's already in beta phase. Here's an example of what we'll all start seeing more of: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=darth+vader&btnG=Search
Google is already displaying more images and video (so THAT'S why they bought YouTube for a squillion bucks), and maps (for local search) so that a user's search experience will be fully catered for when they visit Google. Bruce also said Google was rolling Google Universal because Google has very 'unsticky' pages. Even though Google gets a ridiculous amount of traffic each day, time spent on their site is very low. They're hoping that with content from Google Video and YouTube imbedded into the search results, people will spend more time on site and have more chance to click on Google Ads (where Google makes most of its money).
Bruce said that from an SEO/SEM perspective we should be getting our clients to think about providing more video content - creating it, posting it on YouTube, link to the video heavily so that it has a strong chance of appearing at Google for search results (not just at YouTube). Companies who do this now will have a real head start when Google Universal rolls out in earnest.
It’s not much fun playing catch up.
Chris Thomas, Search Engine Optimisation Specialist
