Usually Google is the one to lead the way, with Bing & Yahoo, etc. following behind. Not this time. Google just recently added a left side menu, which looks a lot like the ones on…Bing & Yahoo. Nothing wrong with that, but it does put Google in the category that Microsoft fill; that of the big company who takes ideas from the smaller, smarter ones.
Yahoo has said that their (earlier) implementation of this left side menu increased ‘engagement’, which means more interaction by the searcher and, presumably, for a longer time. That can’t hurt a search engine if the visitor spends more time using it. Especially a search engine selling ad space.
The left menu gives searchers the ability to narrow down their searches quickly and easily to categories such as Images to see related photos or News to get related news items & stories. The biggest menu option people are talking about in the search engine world, though, is Updates.
Updates is the category for Google’s Real Time search entries like the latest tweets from Twitter. Social Media takes a new importance as Social Search is weighted more in the new Google search results. There’s also the Nearby option that should be taken into your consideration as a Local Business.
This means if your local market is the source of most of your business, you need to make sure that you emphasize where you are in your listings and on your website. There’s obviously more to come from this, but Google is making it clear that they’re getting even more personalized in delivering search results. Even if they’re borrowing from other search engines to get it done.
SEOs should take note of how this will affect ranking their sites. It will be making a huge difference soon, if not already.