Types of Blended Search Results

1. Image Results
2. Online Video
3. New Results
4. Blog Listings/Results
5. Book Listings
6. PDFs
7. Local / GEO Search Listings
8. Traditional Text Link Results aka Web Search
9. Product Search
10. Catalog Search
11. Movie Search
12. Music Search
13. Map Search
14. Health Search
15. Celebrity Search
16. Job Search
17. Recipe Search
18. Financial / Stock Search
19. People Search
20. Comparison Search

So how can businesses leverage these types of search results?  Well if you look at the list above, you may notice that there is one item that is consistent and that is content.  First and foremost you need to have the proper content on your site.  I find it interesting that many sites that I visit have content is stale and outdated.  Yet I find it of equal interest that there are other sites that are going to great lengths to continually publish fresh new content.  It comes as no surprise that these sites are the ones that I am starting to notive more and more in the search engine results.  Yet why aren’t more businesses doing this?  Why is it that many businesses feel that because they have "decent rankings" in the search engines they feel that don’t need to change a thing?  Ah complacency. 

Just because your site has been on top of the world and has ranked well (in the top spot) in Google or Yahoo for the past five years for your main key phrases does not mean that you can just sit back and enjoy the scenery.  All it takes is one major shift in the algorithm and "POOF" you are gone.  Anyone remember the Florida Update?  Here’s the thing, relevancy is what people want to see and relevancy is what the search engines are trying to deliver.  This is a fundamental reason as to why we will continue to see more blended search results in 2008 and beyond.  Users are sick of performing a query in, let’s say Google, and being reuturned with irrelevant results.  Perhaps it’s a wikipedia listing, perhaps it’s a PDF from 1998 or maybe it’s a webpage that just simply does not provide the information that the user was looking for.  Users have higher expectations for the results that they receive… and why shouldn’t they?  All of the major search engines claim to have billions of pages indexed, and combined with user generated content, hyper-active bloggers and duplicate content, the amount of content out on the Web continues to increase by the minute.  How is a user supposed to find what they are looking for?  Well blended search is a good place to start.

If for example I want to learn how to install drywall in my basement, I might prefer a video result when I type "how to install drywall" into ASK or Google.  I’m not necessary looking for a  dated webpage about how to mud and tape.  I’m also not looking for a web result of a company that produces and/or sells drywall.  So you may ask, "well if that’s the case why don’t you just go over to YouTube and search for a video of what you are looking for?  Well good question, I’m glad that you asked it.  I choose to use a search engine, because that’s what it (a search engine) is for.  A search engine is a tool (an engine) that enables me (the user) to find information that I am searching for.  I have elected to set up my own iGoogle page and populate it with resources that I use to help me with my search.  I am a creature of habit and like to use a search engine…. that is until I cannot find what I am looking for (which is happening more and more).  A search for "how to install drywall" in Google at this time does not provide me with any blended search results.  There are no video results.  I am forced to go to YouTube (which happens to be a Google property) to actually find a video demonstration of how to install drywall".  Once I perform this query I am returned with 78 results.  That’s it 78 results?  For the record the web search returned 115 million results for the same query.  How am I supposed to find what I am looking for from 115 million results?  With improved blended search results, all Google had to do was present a couple of video results in my search and I would have been satisified.  Had there been a video result in my original search, chances are I would have clicked on it.  The points that I am trying to get across are:

1. The Search Engines are still trying to figure out how to incoporate blended search results.
2. Having a number one ranking will become less important as the search engines roll out more blended results.
3. The user will ALWAYS be looking for relevant results (this may be video results, fresh news results, or any of the other 20 types of blended search results mentioned above.)

So getting back to the original purpose of this post, how can businesses leverage blended search to their benefit?

1. Understand the Needs of your Users - The first (and the most important) item to address is to understand your user.  Learn about what type of content they are looking for.  Provide them with this content..  If they are looking for images, optimize your images for the terms that your user will be looking for.   If they are looking for PDF versions of white papers, yup you guessed it, provide them with this type of content.
    
2. Determine what type of Blended Search Results will work best for you – if Web search is too competitive, consider alternatives of t things such as video or Financial/Stock search.  For retailers, product search becomes very imprtant as does catalog search.
    
3. Have the Proper Content for Blended Search - in order to be seen in the blended search results you need to have content that will create visibility for your brand in the blended search results.  You may need to blog.  You may need to upload video.  You may need to launch frequent press releases.  Whatever the case may be, you need to ensure that you have sufficient content that can be used for gaining a presence in the blended search results.
    
4. Optimize Your Content - you need to ensure that your content is optimized for terms and key phrases that A) Your Users and Prospects are using in their search queries and B) Terms that the Search Engines are Using to Incoporate Blended Search Results.  The fact is your should always optimize your content for relevancy.  This means having proper titles on blog posts, tagging your videos with relevant keywords, naming image files with keywords descriptive of the image, submitting to local search, building links to your content, getting people to comment on your blog posts or videos and the list goes on.
    
5. Position for Blended Search Now - Although the search engines are still working on incorporating blended results, you can still optimize your content for blended search.  Before it becomes saturated, optimize your content for blended search now before your competition does.  Remember the drywall example earlier?  Did you notice that there were only 78 video results for "how to install drywall" in YouTube?  Personally if I was a drywaller and wanted to promote my service offereing, I’d probably try to upload a few videos to YouTube to promote my brand and my business.  Being an early adopter can be very rewarding if you look at the big picture.  Think of what blended search can do for you.

While blended search is still in its infancy, it will become the way of the future when it comes to search results.  Preparation for it now can save you time, money and energy in the future.  It’s all about online visibility and relevancy.  Relevant blended search results will provide a richer experience for the user.  As a user this is great news.  From video results to news results the information that will be served to the user will continue to improve and allow a more efficient means of information collection and distribution.

Breakdown of Universal Search 

WHO: Google
WHAT: A comprehensive way to search for and view information online involving more than just  typical text-based search results.
WHERE: Google search results pages.
WHEN: Released May 16, 2007.
WHY: To provide more comprehensive information to the searcher that includes standard web search results, blog results, images, video results, local/map results, news results, books, patents, finance, code and catalogs.

Simply put, Google's Universal Search blends content from Google Images, Maps, Books, Video, and News into their web results.  For the average user of Google, this means that depending on the query that you are searching for, you may be served up with various forms of media.  Try a search for Amazing Spiderman, Clint Eastwood, or iphone.  You will notice that the results are now filled with news listings, videos, images, blog results and of course traditional search results.  Previously you would have only received the later. 

Does Universal Search Improve the Search Experience?

Well this is debatable. It depends if you are interested in video or image results that may "distract" you from your intent.  The problem with Universal Search is that it can "cloud" the results and provide results that are not relevant to your search query.  For me personally, I want relevant results all of the time.  If the most relevant result is an image that's fine just don't show it to me when I am actually looking for the latest news story or for the latest blog post about a topic of interest.

If Universal Search returns irrelevant results, the least Google could do is make Universla Search an optional feature that users could have some control over.  As it is right now, there is no way to "turn off" Universal Search.

More on Universal Search

Official Google Press Release on Universal Search
An Intimate View of the World through the Eyes of Google
What Influences Universal Search?
Guide to Google's Universal Search