A new user interface for Google’s search options feature is being tested this month, targeted at randomly selected groups of people using the engine around the world.
Effectively, the company is testing how users respond to a new interface for its search options feature. Currently, users can access a slightly more basic version of this by clicking ‘show options’ on the results page, bringing up a menu on the left-hand side of the screen that show a number of ways to filter results.
Currently, the ‘options’ features are believed to be fairly underused. Though adding filters to universal search can radically alter the returned results and their ranking – having a massive effect on how SEO filters into search – the feature is fairly easy to overlook. The new design will make the options extremely visible by default, possibly changing how SEO services use factors such as related keywords or targeting results via time period to maximum effect.
As well as a visual difference, the new design for options incorporates features previously available only through the use of advanced search terms, as well as new ways of presenting search results like the “timeline view”. Perhaps the most significant of these features from a search engine marketing perspective is the new “nearby” option, which has also been added to the traditional ‘options’ menu.
This feature gives users the ability to search by location; rather than adding a geographical keyword, users will be able to specifically focus their results by geotargeting. Although Google also offers this as part of the Local Search feature, this new feature will let users use geotargeting in universal results.
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