Google has been testing/experimenting with some richer search results pages for things like movies, actors, bands, books, people, etc. We wrote about it last month when a reddit user posted a screen cap, but from the sound of it, these …

Google announced that it has made it “easier” to choose the result you want. It’s not as major as it sounds. Essentially, they just made an adjustment to how Instant Previews work. Here’s the full announcement: In addition to some …

Bing announced the release of “Action Buttons” in search results today. These are buttons on certain types of search results (including travel-related) that allow you to engage in specific actions related to that result. Think about things like checking into …

Yahoo announced a new redesign to its search results pages, which are available on web search, image search, Yahoo News, Yahoo Blogs, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports. “We have been working to unify the search experiences across web, multimedia, and …

There have been a whole lot of announcements from the major search engines this week, that all webmasters should be aware of – especially from Google, because while its market share may have slipped slightly (while Bing-powered search has grown …

It should be easier to find NFL scores on Google moving forward, which is a good thing because the season is quickly approaching. That’s not all though. Google has expanded its NFL-related search results to include even more information, thanks …

Google announced a new kind of snippets it will be showing on search results pages now. These snippets will appear on results for sites that are list pages. “Snippets—the few lines of text that appear under every search result—are designed …

Google announced today that it is launching an update to its sitelinks feature in search results. These are the links that appear under some search results that point users to different parts of that that site. Now, sitelinks are full-sized …

Google is testing a feature in its search results pages that replaces the URL in a result’s snippet with the name of the site on which it appears. So, for example, a WebProNews article titled “Netflix Redesign Rubs Many Users …

Google announced a new kind of search result called Place Search today. These results can be accessed from the new "Places" option in the left panel on Google search results pages, but unlike many of the other search options available in the panel, Google will actually return you these results for queries automatically, when it thinks you are looking for local information. 

Place Search results are marked with red pins, much like you’re used to seeing on Google Maps. 

Google is apparently testing a feature in its search results pages that allows users to see full-page previews of sites before they click through to them. 

A reporter (I believe she was from AdAge) attending Google’s Q&A about Google Instant pointed out that the new search feature tends to favor big brands. This isn’t really surprising, as it is these brands that are more likely to be searched for most often. After all, they’re big because people know them. 

Google is holding an even later today in which it is expected to unveil some new search-related product. Yesterday’s highly publicized Google doodle, which had the Google logo turning into a bunch of balls flying around as your mouse got closer to it, is presumed to be a clue to the new product launch. 

Google is reportedly testing a feature that would have search results appear as you type your query, in real-time. You know how suggestions appear as you type? Imagine the entire search results page doing that.

A video has been going around the Blogosphere illustrating this functionality. It comes from Rob Ousbey:

Google’s new SERP design (you know, with the left-hand panel), has created more areas for webmasters to focus their SEO efforts on. While most of the options available here have been available for quite some time, they are now in the user’s face and they will be used more.

Has the new user interface affected your traffic? For better or for worse? Tell us.

Opportunities

Last year at its Searchology event, Google introduced Google Squared, the company’s Labs project aimed at building collections of facts from the web for any topic specified by the user. A year later (to the day), Google announced that Squared is already being integrated into its search engine.

Now that the masses have access to Google’s newly redesigned results pages, it’s time to consider this in an SEO light if you have not already been considering it.

How do Google’s New SERPs Affect SEO? Comment here.

We’re living in an increasingly open and revealing world where people are eager to tell you where they are, where they’ve been, and where they’re going. Not everyone is so eager, but location-sharing is a rising trend that is not to be ignored. Naturally, the phenomenon will have a growing impact on search.

There is still plenty of room for conversation about what location means to search.  Tell us what you think.

Facebook and Twitter get a lot of the credit for all of the conversation that is going on around the web these days, and they certainly account for a great deal of it. Still there is public conversation happening in many other channels – blogs, Q&A sites, news sites, YouTube, other social networks, and forums.

Google announced today that it is rolling out its newly redesigned SERPs (search engine results pages). In a separate announcement, the company noted that the new results go for the mobile version of Google as well.

Google has a couple new elements going on in its results pages. The first one is the addition of brand links for some queries. For example, if you search for "watches" you might get links for Citizen, Nixon, Rolex, Omega, and Fossil. Or if you search for "footballs" you might get links for Wilson, Nike, Rawlings, Spalding, and Dallas Cowboys.