Google tests new ‘Sitelinks’ layout and design

It is a known fact that Google iterates its search results from time to time to try new things. A few months before changing to the new search layout (currently applied), Google changed its layout and design.

Original Sitelinks as seen for cnet:

New SItelinks as seen for sinapse blog:

The new search layout provides ‘Sitelinks’ with are now underlined, show the link and a very small snippet. The new sitelinks format is descriptive and helps to understand the content of each sitelink. However, it makes the sitelinks occupy a lot of screen space.

Further, sitelinks generally show up only when the search is directly matching with a site. In case of specific searches like that of ‘sinapse blog’ would be helpful.

Update – A day later the new trial format seems to have been changed back to original one: see below image

Google+: Social networking from Google (possible facebook killer?)

Google+ project is definitely a response to facebook becoming an increasing threat to Google’s dominance on the web. Reuters reported that the average U.S. visitor spent 375 minutes on Facebook in May, compared with 231 minutes for Google.

Google+ project is currently under field trials and available by invitation only. To get yourself invited, visit the google+ page and click on keep me posted link. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to take a virtual tour of the Google+ project. It is the best you may be able to practically witness the things which are in store in Google+, unless you receive the invite.

Google+ combines a lot of key features which include:

• Circles
• Hangouts
• Instant uploads
• Sparks
• Huddle

For more details, check out the Google blog.

Is it going to revive Google’s fortunes in the social networking space, only time will tell. But the first impression is not that bad.

Google Search Results get new layout and design

It was different when performed searches using Google today. Though i was getting the Google search results in the same design and layout, once in a while it changed. Initially i couldn’t realize why the results seemed different once in a while. After trying a bit more, i figured it out that the searches i performed using my Google toolbar gave the same old layout and design but when i searched in the location bar of Firefox, the results seemed to be different. Later i realized that Google was seemingly conducting a test on its layout and design and the change was witness able for Google.com only and not for country specific Google searches such as for Google.co.in.

Coming straight to the point, let me take off the curtains and let you have a look for yourself and see what i am talking about. Both the new and the old Google search result layout and designs are provided below for easy visual comparison.

New Google Search Result Layout and Design (below)

Old Google Search Result layout and design (below)

Differences

1. There seems to be a clear difference in the colours used in the new layout and design. The new one has a slightly lighter shade of blue.
2. The tiltes in the new layout and design are without underlines.
3. The description text is smaller and lighter than the old design.
4. The space between the results has increased substantially.
5. The cached and similar links have seemingly removed.

My views

Though the new layout seems more uncluttered and removal of underlines is a welcome step, there is too much blank areas between the results for my liking. Moreover, removing the cached and similar links is not a big problem for me as i don’t use that feature very often. I personally seem to like the old blue colour but i guess whenever there is a change people tend to oppose it until the change becomes part of our lives. Since the present layout and design is stuck to us for a long time, it may take us some time to get accustomed to the new layout and design.

A Google a day keeps the searchOmania away!!!

Google has launched a trivia game called ‘A google a day’ wherein it is allowing everyone to search for the answers on Google. The game asks a question everyday and Google provides its vast database to search for the answers using your Google searching capabilities. The game also comes up with its own Google search page which is powered by Deja Google, which helps to avoid spoilers by providing search results before the day the specific ‘a google a day’ trivia was uploaded.

CLICK TO PLAY THE TRIVIA GAME

According to Google, they will follow the traditional style of increasing the complexity of the puzzle with the difficulty levels around Thursday or Friday. Though the game asks questions which are many a times US centered but, what the hell, it becomes even more challenging to figure out the answer if you are not from US.

It seems to be a nice strategy to get users inclined to using Google. Moreover, Google may be receiving a ton of data which it may further use to improve its search results. Keeping everything aside, I found the game to be fun as well as challenging. It will obviously help everyone become good Google searchers.

Source – Google blog

Google PageRank Graph: Google PageRank visualized

Google has undoubtedly become one of the most important sources of traffic to a website. With many of us depending on a predominant chunk of traffic from Google searches, it has become a necessity to rank better in Google search results.

One way Google ensures better search results is through its PageRank (PR) algorithm. Though the exact algorithm behind Google's PageRank is not exactly disclosed by Google, many companies have actually broken the code about PageRank, to some extent at least.

I always wondered what was the difference between different PR values. How much time it would take to move from one PR to a higher one once Google updates the PR in the Google toolbar? Finally i came across an image by Elliance, Inc. which shows the Google PageRank in the form of a graph and helps to visualize the PageRank system. Though it is not official (not by Google) but is good enough to put an end to the speculation in my mind. :)

Source: Elliance