Do you the words "universal search" have little meaning to you? Well it most likely does to the average person on the street. But these two words represent the next evolution of search engines - a development that will potentially change both the way users and advertisers use search engines.

By Universal search Google mean, essentially, multi-media search results. It is new search technique that means users will see images, video, sound, podcasts, RSS feeds, blogs, social media and maps when they do searches, rather than just the existing text-based results.

The system has been launched in the US, and is on its way to Australia, with some elements already here, you may have seen Google Maps appearing in search results?

So you would have to ask, has this been created for the benefit of consumers or for the benefit of Google. Or will it help advertisers?

So will the images on the page - which will initially appear only with the natural search results, and not the paid ads on the right hand side - make such a difference? As Murphy explains, the human brain can take in the information from an image about 1000 times faster than it can that of text. For this reason, the eye is immediately drawn first to any image on a page. And if an image next to a natural search result can draw the consumer's eye, this is obviously an advantage for the brand. For example, in a list of 10 hotels, the hotel with an image of a room is more likely to stand out.

So this is great news for us and any other Search Engine Optimisation companies, but is it also clever news for Google? If image-led search results prove to be most successful, will levels of paid search for the usual text-based ads fall-off? If so, a bidding war for these spots could keep the cash rolling into Google. But I guess this is a question yet to be answered.