Changes in Search Engine Results on Google

Changes in Search Engine Results on Google

Google is no stranger to making changes in how it brings results to its search engines. The changes in its algorithm has been keeping internet marketers on their toes for ages now. However it is the end user and their experience that is the most important.

So here are a couple of changes that Google has made recently – 1. It has now added brand links for certain searched terms.

So if you look at this example here – someone searching for footballs (in the US) gets links for Wilson, Nike, Rawlings, Spalding, and Dallas Cowboys.

These results are typically displayed just under the top sponsored links. The brand links don’t actually go to a brands website but to a different search engine result page that displays the searched term again with the brand term incorporated.
So for example, clicking “Wilson” in the footballs example will take me to results page for “wilson footballs”.

This could just be a limited test or maybe it will be rolled out on a mass scale, time will soon tell. And it is still unclear how you can get your brand listed in the suggestions. It may just be related to how frequently it is searched for. Hopefully they will soon have a “more brands” option.

One other addition to the search engine results pages is the addition of a virtual keyboard, this is something only available for certain languages.

With this feature a Google user using a supported language will find a keyboard icon next to the search box, which brings up a virtual keyboard they can use to enter their query.

Google Product Manager Manish Bhargava says “Our user research has shown that many people are more comfortable formulating search queries in their own language but have difficulty typing these queries into Google.

To overcome the difficulty they face in typing in their local language scripts, some people have resorted to copying and pasting from other sites and from online translation tools. But there’s an easier way — a virtual, or ‘on-screen’ keyboard, lets you type directly in your local language script in an easy and consistent manner, no matter where you are or what computer you’re using.”

Languages Google is integrating virtual keyboards with include: Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Finnish, Galician, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Macedonian, Malayalam, Mongolian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Tatar, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Uzbek.