Demystifying the Google Universal Search Engine

It has been more than a year and a half since Google launched Google 2.0, otherwise known as Google Universal Search. If that term doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone! If you’re like most people, you probably didn’t even know it existed. And maybe that’s just what Google had in mind.

What is the Google Universal Search Engine anyway?

Google’s universal search engine now integrates search engine results from its regular “horizontal” search engine along with its many vertical search engines, which you may not have known existed. If you take a look at Google’s home page, you will notice the links along the top left for Images, Maps, News, etc. These are specialized, or “vertical,” search engines that deliver more specific search results from within a particular topic.

With Google Universal Search, the listings presented are a blend of search engine results, consisting of a mix of “regular” results and more specialized results from the vertical search engines.

So what does this mean with my search engine results?

Basically, Google has done us all a favor by choosing the most relevant order of Google search results for us from all its engines behind the scenes. Have you ever searched for a particular topic and gotten a bunch of frustrating, non-relevant sites? Google’s universal search engine attempts to place the most relevant results first, since most searchers will generally choose to click on one of the first few results.

The order of Google search results will vary based on a formula that determines the relevancy of the search results. Sometimes the vertical search engine results will be at the top, or they may be further down the page, below a few of the regular results.

Chances are you won’t notice either way. And it appears that the folks at Google don’t mind – as long as you keep using Google to get your search results.