Google Testing Out New Search Views

Andrew Hogue, Tech Lead at Google announced on the Google Blog recently that the company is testing out different views on search as part of an experiment.  Currently, Google’s current search results view are 10 results in a vertical list. 

There are 3 different views that Google introduced in their experiment: Map View, Timeline View, and Info View. 

The Timeline View shows a clickable timeline at the top of the results that has content relevant for that year.  Below is a screen shot example of the civil rights timeline.  The higher bars indicate that there are a large number of unique dates.  The search box is to search for specific dates.

The higher bars indicate that there are a large number of unique dates.  The search box is to search for specific dates.

The Map View shows a Google Map with results related to search.  For example, I conducted a search of the term “Elian.”  Elián González is the Cuban boy that was rescued by two fishermen and ended up on U.S. soil.  The screen shot shows the cities that are relevant to the case in the events that shortly followed.

And the last new search view is Info View.  Info View simply has a panel at the right side of the page that has options to instantly display Dates, Measurements, Locations, or Images related to the content that is searched. 

For example, if the user search for “cars” and click on images, it will show pictures of cars.  If the user click on Measurements, it will display some common parameters for various cars such as miles per gallon and a search form will appear asking the user to search for a measurements range.  If the user click on Locations, a search form will open asking the user to search for specific locations to find cars on sale. 

Below is a screen shot of the Info View:

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