Firms Casting a Wide Net for Social Media

New research suggests that as businesses explore social media tools to promote themselves and engage with customers, many are looking beyond the big communities like Facebook and Twitter.

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Marketing Tips: How to Find Copywriters

Andrew Lock reveals a great marketing tool to find copywriters, interviews author Nick Nanton about celebrity branding for entrepreneurs and shares a lesson on tying ads to current events.

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Google Testing a Revamp of the Search Results Page

Update: Danny Sullivan reports that "slight variations" of this design are "live in the wild," and "still being shown to a randomly selected group of people," and that Google doesn't have an expected launch date for a complete roll-out.

Original Article (11/19): Google is testing a new user interface for its search options feature. If you are unfamiliar with the search options feature, it is the link on your search results page that says "show options" and brings up a menu on the left-hand side of the screen providing a number of ways to filter your results.

According to Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land, a "small number" of Google users will see the new interface starting today. The aim of the new interface is to provide users with a cleaner display. Sullivan says that if the testing goes well, Google may roll it out after the New Year. He quotes Google's Marissa Mayer as saying, "We're basically looking at a new look and feel for Google. It's an overall cleaning up of the search engine results page."

Do you think Google's results pages need a new look and feel? Tell us what you think.

Images of this new look and feel look strangely familiar - similar to that of a certain "decision engine." Take a look:

Of course, the Google's search options and Bing have been compared in the past (and other search engines utilize a similar design too for that matter), in terms of the general layout. Their functionalities differ on various levels. It's important to note that this will just be how the search results pages will look, without having to click the search options link to get to it. There has been discussion in the past about how much users actually use Google's search options, simply because the feature is easy to overlook. Such a change would put the options right in your face.

Besides being visually different, the options themselves are different in some areas. For example, a "see also" section has been added, which suggests related queries. There is also a section called "show search tools," which now contains things like the Wonder Wheel, Timeline View, and "more shopping sites."

Google may start messing around with the top navigation on search results pages next year, but the company has acknowledged that it works well right now. It will be interesting to see the change in use of this top navigation if the left-hand options go mainstream.

What do you think of this re-working of Google's search results pages? Do you want to see it go mainstream, or do you like it better how it is right now? Share your thoughts.
Related Articles:
> Google Launches Search Options
> Google Presents New Image Search Options
> Google's Search Options Increase

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Uncertainty forced Lifespan, CNE to part

In an interview, the two CEOs said the lack of a timeline for a decision on their proposed merger left them unable to plan and finally forced them to abandon the effort despite spending millions on it.

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News and Information Blog 27 02 2010

Firms Casting a Wide Net for Social Media

Marketing Tips: How to Find Copywriters

Google Testing a Revamp of the Search Results Page

Uncertainty forced Lifespan, CNE to part