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Google overhauls search engine

by on29 September 2022


Images and video blended directly into results

Google wants to overhaul the formatting of its search engine results pages by putting images and video content blended directly into results, as opposed to featuring under separate tabs or in dedicated box-outs.

Presented at this year’s Google Search On event, it seems to us to mean that instead of getting information about a subject you will waste time clicking on some weirdy beardy talking about footrot or a picture of the illness rather than a simple page of text describing what you are looking for.

Speaking to TechRadar Pro, Google’s VP Engineering, Rajan Patel, explained the goal is to “organise results to better reflect the way people explore topics.”

Google says the update will mean results that appear further down the rankings are likely to become more valuable.

“There are so many questions where a range of results can be helpful, and there are so many ways you might branch off. So we’re making it easy to scroll down the page and find all the different paths you could take,” said Patel.

“Traditionally, people’s mental model with search is that the further you go down the results, the less relevant they get. This is to some degree a feature of ranking systems, not a bug. But if you think about all the queries with no right answer, finding new avenues to explore can be incredibly useful.”

Patel refused to confirm or deny if it was going to add multimedia adverts to results, in conjunction with the new format.  This could mean in addition finding written content in the results you are going to have to struggle to find what you want amongst multi-media snake oil adverts.

Still, changes like this might break Google's hold on the search industry, which can only be a good thing.

 

Last modified on 30 September 2022
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