The Future: Google’s Universal Search

Google recently announced the debut of Universal Search, a major shift in the way the engine will deliver search results.

Increasingly, results from Google’s vertical search engines, such as News, Images, Videos, Blogs, Local and more, will appear within the normal Web search results.

Joining these vertical silos of information with Google’s regular search results will change the search engine landscape forever. In other words, Google is growing up.

Google’s simplicity of design, user friendliness, and massive index of the web have all driven it to become a household name and the number one search engine in the world in less than 10 years. Now Google is developing new and innovative ways to grow its brand and business through universal search.

These new changes are a logical maturation of Google’s search results. More than ever, content creators and search engine marketers must think vertically. This is an opportunity for companies to have additional visibility in more places, as well as broaden their audience. The meshing of vertical search should provide the Google user with more relevant results and more options for finding information in a one-stop search engine shop.

I have to give a hand to Google for finding a way to integrate all of its services into one. Google has spent lots of resources on research and development of new vertical search services. Now Google can highlight and unify all of these services and continue to grow as the world’s number one search engine.

How will these changes affect PPC and natural positioning? Wise search marketers who pay attention to trends in the search marketing world will have no problem with the changes. As a new opportunity for growth, optimization will be more important than ever. As a comprehensive search solution, universal search should also be helpful to searchers who have simply ignored Google’s vertical search options, missing out on the good content available.

Is universal search the wave of the future for search? Regardless, thanks to Google the future is now.