(P)review of Google’s experimental search features
Posted January 30 2008 2:53 pm by kobewan
Tags: Google, innovation, search
Google has been shaking things up these past few weeks, tweaking the interfaces and functionality of almost all their current services. The most recent has been the five experimental features they’ve been trying out, aimed at improving your “search experience”. The features are: Alternate view for search results, Keyword suggestions, Keyboard shortcuts, Left-hand search navigation, and Right-hand contextual search navigation. Users are currently restricted to opting into only one of the five, so you need to know which you prefer the most. Unfortunately, the little five line description on Google’s page probably won’t give you any deep insights into the new mechanisms. Enter ArsTechnica’s in-depth tour of all changes made by each one, and how they might affect you.
I’m liking all of them, although Alternate Views has quickly become the personal favorite. It seems breathe some fresh air into Google’s somewhat stale list of results. Google’s simplistic result page might be what made them popular in the first place, but it can get kind of boring sometimes and may be overdue for an (optional) overhaul. In the meantime, let us know: which one do you like best and why?