Friday 27 February 2015

The Evolution of Google Search: A Decade in Business



Google SearchWhenever a new term, idea, word, stats, or any other thing comes to your notice, the only thing to get relevant info about the same or to confirm the result is-Google Search. However, Google is well-known for developing Android, smart robots, self-driving cars, and many other projects, but its identity will remain incomplete without Search. Helping users online while seeking info, inquiring about a service, or relating to a simple term, are all that Google Search can do. Transformed from a simple text field to an enhanced search option, to a complex and ad-related platform, that’s all from where Search started and is presently standing. It might interest you to know that half of the projects that Google actually develops receive funds from its search-related ad revenues.

Read this blog to have a quick look at how Google Search evolved over the years and the changes it went through from its inception to Google Now.

Google’s official blog revealed that during its initial stage (from 1998 to 2001), Google.com has been a simple search engine that strived hard to cater users to find answers to their questions. In the beginning of 2001, Google thought of adding tabs above the search box to ensure that search for related items like videos, images, news, should become easier. The tabs stayed on and later links for Google’s Gmail and Calendar got added to the list, along with some web apps. 
Google Search

The year 2007 marks the addition of a navigation bar atop Google.com that was incorporated to showcase links to search items and Google apps. However, in 2011, the navigation bar was morphed into the Google menu to make it more presentable and to offer a slicker and redesigned user interface (UI). The year also saw the prominent placement for Google+ tab and till now the navigation bar was ready to take users to their desired Google applications.

In 2012, Google introduced the ‘Google Now,’ a virtual assistant that was initially designed for Android but was later expanded on iOS and the desktop. The newly developed search feature is capable of delivering even more personal search results to the users.

In the following years, Google refined its search by offering a minimal navigation bar, strategic placement of Google’s social network, and the addition of the voice-based search support. The voice-based search support added to Google.com provides the quick access to your favorite sites as well as tool understands different voice tones and pitches easily.

These changes have also affected the company’s Search tool by affecting search ranking and its evaluation. Google has always focused on establishing a seamless connection between your questions and the information you seek, just by typing a simple text term into the box. 

Following are the three important factors that Google focuses upon while redesigning the Search feature:

Universal Results: Google has always tried to transform its normal search to a ‘Universal Search ’by bringing the results like images, videos, web pages and news in the same place. With growing years, the company continued to make the search more reliable and comprehensive, by ensuring exact details of the search terms and by finding products, places, patents, books, maps and more.
Google Search

Quick Answers: Bringing you search results with not just a list of links to web sites format, Google is now also empowered to fetch millions of search results within a few seconds. User can easily select the ‘Quick Answers’ feature at the top of the page to seek a variety of topics, including flight times, sports scores, weather and dozens more. The company’s spokesperson announced “As technology gets better, we’re beginning to answer harder questions for you, right on the search results page” with remarkable pride.

The Future of Search: The company will now focus on discovering faster ways to search information. Additionally, the developers will also emphasize on saving user’s time by putting all the relevant stuff on the first page. Google Instant or Voice Search from your mobile phones is helping a lot to search effectively. Talking about the future, the company is thinking about a stage where searching should be as easy as thinking.

Imparted with different phases on the timeline, the Search featured many important yet remarkable improvements that have streamlined the entire searching experience. Since Google has improved this tool beyond user expectations, that day isn’t too far when it will transform this tool to a technology that searches whatever you’ll think!

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