The finance comparison market has been a very lucrative and successful one over the past 5 years and it seems that Google has finally decided that it wants a piece of the pie! The screenshot below is taken from a Google UK search for secured loan (interestingly it only worked in IE and not in Firefox) and shows the Google Merchant Search function appearing above all PPC listings with drop down functionality allowing the user to select their desired loan amount before they even leave the SERP. Once an option is selected the user is taken to the Google Merchant page with their options shown based on the original selection, much like with all the other comparison sites in the market.

At the moment it appears this is just in Beta on the secured loan keyword but surely if successful this will be rolled out onto all other financial products. I couldn’t see where Google was getting these results from, and so I am not even sure if the providers know they are being compared (although I assume they are aware) and there is not indication of how a company would get its products listed, although this could just be a closed beta for now.

This could have massive implications for the comparison market, above and beyond the fact that there is another competitor in the market. In the first instance they have knocked moneysupermarket off the top PPC listing which will impact their volume, I am assuming they are not paying themselves a premium CPC for this position! They are also allowing themselves much more prominence on the page than a standard listing. 49 characters for a title and drop down functionality make it stand out on the page. Users could also see this as an easier option than clicking through a link and going through the whole process on a separate engine.

On top of this, if the beta is successful, what is to stop them adding in a variable to quality score which penalises other comparison sites? In one fell swoop generating themselves both more revenue from the sites willing to pay more and reducing the prominence of these sites and so driving more volume through their own tool. I may be a cynic but I can see it happening. Moneysupermarket spend a lot of money with Google but if they see a bigger opportunity in doing it themselves then they will surely pursue this avenue instead.

Is this the end of independent comparison sites? No, I doubt it, but if/when the beta is expanded it could be a big dent in their revenues and they will have to think of other ways to differentiate themselves. Some insurers (direct line to name one) are already boycotting the comparison sites and if Google is to offer this service for free, which they may well do in the name of stickiness and keeping people within the Google realm, more could follow suit.

I spotted something on Google today which I hadn’t seen before and is a new development in universal search.  On a search for “times” I was presented with the standard search results you get for a brand term but then in addition to this there was a search box contained with the results! On entering a search phrase into this box I was presented with the site search results but still with the Google SERP.  This functionality is well known and nothing new but the inclusion of the search box in the results is not something I have seen before. 

It is obviously just another element of Universal Search in action but is alos a good tool for Google to make their results as accurate as possible and keep people within their pages.  By allowing them to search within Google for keywords contained within a site you are not only enhancing the user experience but promoting loyalty and boosting query numbers at the same time, win all round.  On top of this they are also able to produce additional Adwords results on the secondary search and potentially boosting revenues as well.

Yahoo! are taking Universal Search mobile through their beta application Yahoo! One Search.  The mobile search application which must be downloaded to a compatible handset “practically reads your mind!” according to the pages on the Yahoo! mobile site.  Providing results from all Yahoo! properties including, answers, Yahoo Finance, Flickr along with Wikipedia and various news sources the application brings Universal Search to your mobile for the first time.  The categories are grouped and presented in a manageable format to make them easy to use.  I cant help but think that maybe they should concentrate on getting Universal Search right on the mainstream Internet before attempting it with mobile but I suppose maybe the simpler platform makes it easier to pull off and also the less sophisticated search terms being used means that the technology deciding what should be displayed also needs to be less intelligent.  in its present form with the need for download its usage will be limited, but I suppose it is still in beta anyway.  The main take up will come as Yahoo! starts to do deals with the networks to provide handsets with the application already built in which I’m sure will be their plan once it is out of beta and they are confident of its stability.

Search engine land reported today the release of some new functional by ask which allows a user to upload their own personal background image for the search engine.  The functionality to add a skin to the background has been available since last year but this was only for predetermined images and wasn’t customisable.  I like the idea of customising the results page and this is a much simpler solution than Google’s which involves xml information rather than a simple image upload.  It is also much more flexible and interesting than msn and yahoo’s offerings which only allow the selection of different colour palletes for the page.

This functionality is just another stage in the battle for search engine supremacy but also for loyalty within internet users through added value.  Yahoo had this a long time ago through positioning itself as an information portal and one stop shop for your internet needs (email, news, sport, search…) a similar position taken by MSN.  Then Google smashed this with its simplicity and accuracy of results.  But even the big G has recognised the need to give people more and through iGoogle struck a balance between information on the page and usability by allowing the user to choose which information feeds they received.  The issue at the bottom of all of this is keeping people using your page/engine, setting it as their homepage, and a base for all their online activities.  If they can use your site for everything they need online whey would they go elsewhere?  The longer a user in on your site, the more searches they do, the more ads they view, the more ads they click, the more money you make! Simple.  Expect a lot more releases like in this in the next 12 months as the battle continues.

It’ll take a lot more functionality for Yahoo, Ask or MSN to catch Google but I do know people who now use the Yahoo homepage as they prefer it to Google so there is some movement going on.   You can check out the Ask function on the US site here, it is not yet available in the UK.

I had my first look at the Wikia Search alpha today and I have to say the results are absolute pants!  To be fair to them the people at Wikia do say the results won’t be great at the moment as the basis of their engine is that of user reviews and not so much algorithmic search, hence results will improve rapidly over time as listings begin to get scored by users.  I have to admit that I like the idea of a user ranked search engine, after all, how many websites do you come across which have absolutely no relevance to your search phrase? (my blog ranks rather highly for “search pornsex” for example!) But not only that, a user can make more judgements on things like usability and site layout than a search engine spider which should further help the best websites rise to the top.  The process appears relatively simple, hover over a result and a five star scale will appear allowing you to score the result, this will then be used along with the algorithmic properties to determine a websites position.  This will be wholly reliant obviously on users picking up on and participating in this ranking process so I will be watching with a lot of interest how the results improve over the coming weeks.Aside from the standard results there is also going to be a section at the top of results reserved for “mini articles” on each subject.  According to Wikia “These will vary in purpose according to the circumstance, but the primary uses will be:

• Short definitions
• Disambiguations
• Photos
• See also “

Generated by the users these will obviously take the same form of the Wikipedia pages and will undoubtedly include some Wikipedia content for sections yet to be populated by the new system.  Wikia Search undoubtedly has the potential to become the most relevant search engine but the worry, as has been the problem with tagging sites such as digg in recent times, is that people begin to play the system, creating alias accounts to boost their own contents ratings and therefore rank, totally devaluing the whole platform.  If Wikia Search really does become the next number one contender to the big G then the temptation to find a “quick win” within its system will grow stronger in line with its visitor stats.  At present I believe Wikia plans to get around the duplicate account problem by basing its user on IP address but that doesn’t sound like to much of a robust system to me and I cant imaging it will be long before the spammers have an easy way of beating it.

I may have sounded negative in this post but I honestly hope Wikia Search succeeds, I hate the dominance Google has on the search market.  I also love the thought of users producing the search results rather than a piece of software.  On this initial offering I think there is a long way to go with the next big pretender.

Google announced on its blog yesterday the launch of a new tool for universal search, the flight status function.  All you have to do is search on the airline and the flight number and Google will tell you whether it is delayed or on time and its departure and arrival times.  its a useful little tool this one as it removes the need to find the airlines web page and with a lot of people having Google as their homepage or using a tool bar it speeds up the process.  I would be interested to see if it cover ALL airlines though and how accurate and frequently updated the information this as this is key.  Without accuracy the tool may as well not exist.

It was announced last week on the official google blog that Google are currently testing out their latest project Google Knol which is a wiki based information source populated by knowledgeable contributed and edited by the users.  This is obviously a direct competition to Wikipedia and is based on the same principles and ideas. 

Apparently the challenge posed by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge, and this was their solution.  At the moment the tool is only open to a select group of invited individuals and the tool is in its first stage of development and testing but with the speed at which Google tend to do things I cant see it being long before its launched to the public.  According to the article goal is for Knols to cover all topics and to highlight and credit authors, something which is rarely done online. 

Much like on Wikipedia users will be able to submit edits, questions, comments, additional content etc etc but they can also include Adsense ads in relation to their article and earn a percentage of the revenue earned through these ads.  This is where Knol might steel a march on Wikipedia as Wiki users participate for free and have no option to earn money.  It is a nice touch from Google as they are appearing to be giving back to the contributors when in reality they are obviously taking the Lion’s share of the profits for themselves.

One question that does need to be asked is what does this mean for Wikipedia, and in particular their search rankings?  They do very well in the natural results and Google have often been criticised for ranking the site so well.  Could it be that we will start to see the demise of Wiki’s search rankings once Knol is introduced, now that would be convenient!  However Google might not even need to do this as they say in their article “A Knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.” Which suggests to me that the Knol’s may become a part of the Universal Search page and appear above all the natural results anyway.  Could the end be nigh for Wikipedia?

Tags: wikipedia, Google, universal search, google knol, knol

Google’s Universal Search project has been well documented and for a while now it has been integrating its other properties (i.e. maps, product search etc) into the standard SERP. But whilst searching this week I noticed that once a search is completed which produces maps results Google are now limiting the natural search results to 7 listings for page 1. This has huge implications for search engine optimisers as it makes it even more difficult to get front page exposure. It is also safe to assume that as other types of results are integrated into Universal Search that this number could easily reduce further.

We have seen this with Ask as well with their new platform. Due to their inclusion of images video and definitions into their SERP they are now only showing 8 paid search listings. Google could easily follow suit as this can be used (as it has been by Ask) to free up real estate on the right hand side of the page. they will need to be careful how they go about doing this however as the paid listings are their main revenue driver and any reduction or change in their format could reduce earnings significantly.

It will be interesting to see how universal search pans out and if it has the desired effect. Personally if I want to search for an image I am more than happy to visit the image search page directly and likewise with video, but maybe for the less educated user a one stop search shop this would be more appealing.

Something I have just spotted in the Google results which I have never seen before. On a search for nike the result for the official nike website was showing a plus symbol accompanied by the phrase Stock quote for Nike and one clicking it the result expanded down to show the Google finance result for the Nike sports company.I have never seen this in the search results before and to me it shows a new level of interaction in the SERP. The ability to expand and minimise sections of the page to show and remove certain information. Although there has long been the option to see similar page results this has always been through a new search page and involved having to navigate away from the original results. With the ability to expand down results there would be the option to see the top 10 pages for a website or other similar information without losing your original search. I think we could see further usages of this button in the future.

As the evolution of the search engine results page (SERP) pick up speed advertisers need to begin asking the question, what does it all mean to me?

The advent of Google’s universal search and the inevitable following suit of the other search engines will signify a new dawn in search engine marketing. I have listed below a few things which I think will be impacted and that must be considered when optimising for the future of search:

PPC: Logic suggests that with the introduction of more information onto the SERP that the number of paid links will be reduced. But then they are the main income source of the page, so will they? I think the likely hood is that the number will be reduced to 6-8 listings per page (as with the new ask.com pages), enough to free up some inventory but not significantly reduce earnings. In fact, this sort of reduction could drive up the price of first page exposure as everyone clambers for prime position so there may be no reduction in revenues at all. This could mean advertisers see a drop off in traffic as the page the are appearing on begins to drop, and a rise in costs as they fight to achieve exposure.

Dependant on the positioning of the paid listings in the page there could also be changes in click through rate. If you are adding in additional elements into the does this mean the clicks are diluted between them? I would suggest this is down how the information is arranged and the prominence each is given.

SEO: Again there could be a drop in the number of natural listings which appear in the SERP as additional inventory is introduced. This makes the importance of front page exposure even more valuable and harder to come by!

There may also be a reduction in the text which is displayed for each result in order to fit in more listings. If this is the case it would become extremely important to ensure that title tags are not only targeted to the keyword but are enticing to the user.

Additional Products: With the addition of “other” results into the SERP it will become increasingly important to take a holistic approach and incorporate all of them into an effective search campaign. Image search, maps, product feeds, book listings, will all become important sources of traffic as their prominence and exposure increases.

There is a big win to be had for the advertiser which embraces the changing face of search and optimises for all elements of the page. Rather than a threat to each individual element this should be seen as an opportunity for front page exposure on numerous fronts. The companies/advertisers which adapt with the SERP will prosper, those that don’t will be left wondering where all the traffic went!